Animated Projections

Animated Projections?

Performance #2 Clip

Performance #1 Clip

More New Photos 12/6/09

New Photos 12/6/09

New Stuff I'm Looking At Part 2

Another pretty important aspect of Endi and Danielle's critique was the way I was portraying myself in my photographs. Although the subject matter was pretty revealing (and by that I mean I revealed quite a bit of my body), however, the photographs were not overtly sexual or really sexual at all.

I'm intrigued by the way sexuality is changed and shrouded in a lot of the German expressionist works. If you look at the works of Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, the naked women featured in his prints are not remotely sexual or sexy. Their harshly rendered bodies are contorted and posed in incredibly "unflattering" poses. I guess I had been so stuck in figuring out exactly "what I was trying to say with this void" that I didn't think much about the effects I was employing to change the reading of my ordinarily sexualized body.

I was checking out some photos on a friends facebook page, He's in Paris and I guess he went to some show (he didn't say who the artist was)and took a few pictures of the work. This one really struck me and seemed to be employing the same kinds of visual elements to chance the reading of the female body:

I love how much the animal head throws off the reading of this woman's naked body.

New Stuff I'm Looking At

Okay, so, I've switched gears a bit. The big switch was initiated by a conversation with Endi and Danielle a few weeks ago. I'd been really suck on "the void" and figuring out what it meant and how it was working in the images that I had made. Well, during our critique, Endi and Danielle suggested I drop "the void" and focus on some other conceptual considerations including the idea of my projection as a wearable. Endi also suggested I look at the work of a few German expressionists, saying my aesthetic was very reminiscent of the harsh, brooding style that coined the genre of prints.

o here are a few I was looking at by Kathe Kollwiz:

And Ernst Ludwig Kirchner:

And Karl Schmidt-Rottluff

I was really struck and inspired by the intense line quality and heavy feeling all of the pieces exude. I could definitely see where Endi was coming from when he told me to check out their work. I did another plate (an etching on plastic this time) and tried to push this heavy handed/weathered/harsh aesthetic a little further.

More Photos...

shooting locations: bedroom, kitchen, living room

New Photos (Bed series)

I'm not sure if the color is distracting? Something I'm going to have to work out...

Sketches- 11/09

I'm working on the "void" and trying to imagine it as a womb (which is another commonly used word to describe the uterus) and explore the whole new set of implications it carries. I think the "womb" carries the kind of natural, life-giving, reproducing connotation I have been searching for. The point of the "void" is that it's only significance is reproduction and without an embryo it ceases to exist as a useful organ. The "womb" contributes nicely to this idea.

I've been picturing this womb as a very natural-looking organ. Images of birds nests have been circulating a little, also the idea that instead of the very graphic black whole that I have been using to picture the void, the womb would be more three dimensional. I'm not sure if that would defeat the graphic imagery I've been working with? Anyways, here is a digital and drawn sketch of this new potential "womb"...

Projection Trial 1

I started messing around with projecting images on my body. There are definitely a lot of kinks I need to work out... one major issue: how do you project full screen images and avoid the desktop icons/ menu bars (which are present in these images)??? However, and more importantly, I'm really happy with the way these images turned out!

I'm interested in exploring this process...here are some of the images--