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Preserving my body, using my body to print, acrylic paint on watercolour paper

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Body print using acrylic paint on watercolour paper 

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Thinking of mortality and back to start of my project, the layers we are made of. Nerves, bones and flesh.  Tying it back￼ to portrait paintings 

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I used a secondhand too from a charity shop that resembled the corsets I was looking at (as I wasn’t confident that I’d be able to hand make a full Edwardian corset).
I first had to deconstruct the top as I wanted it to fasten on the front, so I removed the zip from the back attached it to the front panels, then closed up the back of the top.
I then used lace on the sides to resemble the research I had done in my sketchbook of close up in the human body. I thought the lace looked like soft bone.
Then I attached the canvas on top of the garment, I wanted the inside to look similar muscle as the colouring of the original top was similar to this attaching the canvas on top to then paint made sense.
I then created a rough outline of a rib cage by sewing the general idea, and stuffing it with an old pillow as I went along.

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I love the outcome of the painted garment.
And it’s ability to hang as a painting when not worn.
Looking back I think I would like to have spent a bit more time on the construction of the garment side, as I think my excitement to paint it made me rush the actual process of making sure it would lay on the body efficiently.
Although, through the faults of the functionality of the garment, kind of speaks on the unattainability of the body that capitalism sells to us. When worn it’s uncomfortable, restricting and unflattering. Which is not only reminiscent of how the constraints of capitalism feels but also what it’s like to try and fit your natural body into something that it isn’t.

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Collage of two developments, Oil pastel and oil paint on canvas paper 

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Combining my love for portraiture painting with the inner body

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Trying to take a watercolour painting I done in my sketchbook outside of the sketchbook.
I feel as though my colour pallette got too muddy and mixed in together which caused me to overwork the painting and mess up proportions of my original sketch.

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Combining fabric with previous experiments 

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Watercolour, pencil and red pen on canvas paper

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Taking inspiration from previous concepts in my sketchbook.

I really like the composition of this compared to the face on portraits!! I wanted to focus on the disconnection you feel from your body operating under capitalism, how your body becomes a commodity but to also emphasis the reality of the human body rather than the body becoming an object. I like the separation of the nerves bones and flesh in this piece and I think I’ll probably develop this area more

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Watercolour on unprimed, unsteched canvas 

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Trying to upscale the previous painting on to canvas.

This didn’t work in my opinion for a few reasons, I used watercolour on unprimed canvas to try an archive a blurred look, but I felt it didn’t quite work exactly how I wanted it to. I also didn’t stretch the canvas and it ended up becoming really crinkled, which I feel makes the painting look worse.

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Full body print, acrylic paint on canvas. 

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Due to health scares, fear of death, I though how can I preserve my body, after doing some experiments, shown in my sketchbook, I done a full body print onto canvas.

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Nerves. Fully body print, painted with acrylic on to body then pressed on canvas paper

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I then combined my past developments of nerves, bones and flesh with the body prints

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Bones. Fully body print, painted acrylic on to body then printed it onto canvas paper. 

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Flesh. Full body print, painted with acrylic onto my body then printed onto canvas paper.

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I think this would work well as a series for my finals!

Speaking on capitalism and it’s effects and profits on our bodies, having the body preserved could tie into how many femme people are almost forced into the ideal of youth as if it’s equals beauty. How in order to be seen as beautiful, you must resemble a child. As soon as you don’t adhere to this, you are wasted, washed up, aren’t granted opportunities as easily.

It almost contrasts the feelings I have now.
Having that I grew up in poverty with parents that had really bad addictions, we often had to skip meals as we couldn’t afford to eat, I later I developed an eating disorder, skipping meals in p5, not providing myself with the right nutrients whilst my body is still to grow, not having regular periods due to being malnourished. To now still being quite poor, mostly having one meal a day, not by choice but again because I can’t afford to. Impacting my health, I’m now scared of the effects it’s having on my body.

Effects of capitalism on the body in a different light.

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Body print of breast, watered down acrylic on tile.

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Being that through this project I’ve been really struggling with money, I’ve been raiding my neighbourhood for disregarded material to work on.
I found a set of tiles, wooden shelves, mirrors.
I only wanted to take items I could disinfect in some kind of way-
With this series I wanted to show the effects of not looking after yourself and how it impacts your body. The first being quite polished, somewhat resembles my breast, the second being a bit more distorted and last being quite bled out and messy.
I also made sure to use watered down paint and leave it unvarnished, to further the original point, even if you are careful little things can damage the piece, transporting these tiles to the college created lots of little scratches in the prints, especially the last one.

I think the fragility of these tiles articulates the concept behind them really nicely, it’s subtle but powerful.

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Planning out final, watercolour on watercolour paper. 

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For my finals I want to stretch canvas over the found shelf’s, then screen print my body prints
(After thinking about the metals and stuff in acrylic paint I realised it probably wasn’t smart to constantly lather my body in paint, lead poisoning???)

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The screen printing process was one I was previously familiar with, but having Laura there with me in studio was honestly amazing because I did even need to ask for help she just instantly came over and got involved, gave me really useful tips and even brought up the my screens to the studio when we ran out of time <3

At first I printed the images on A4 hoping the print would fill the page, but it was in the centre and very small. I considered maybe the minimalist look could work, but decided against it as the two middle shelves wouldn’t hold the skeleton print very well. So I decided to make it true to size.
I done this by referencing my original body prints, they were spread between 2 A3 sheets of canvas paper each. So I printed the separate pieces onto 6 A3 sheets of acetate.

As we are only allowed access to the print studio on a Friday, trying to get all 4 done within an hour was a bit of a time crunch, but I managed to get the first one done (Nerves) with the rest of the screens ready to print on Monday morning!

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Week 6
- group discussions on theme.
-further development on combining myself with the body.

Week 7
- development outside sketchbook, using concept found.
-trying different materials to work on or add that connects to the previous garment.

Week 8
- explore ways to preserve the body as it it now.

Week 9
- Development of final concepts, what ideas are you taking forward?

Week 10
- start working on finals!

Week 11
-upload to padlet process and development
-make good (if not finished finals, finish them now!!)

Week 12
Installation of final works!
-upload remaining stuff to padlet :D

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Within this project I want to speak on how capitalism oppresses the body, navigating this vast subject matter through my own Lens. I want to predominantly focus on the body and the direct impact the capitalistic world has on it. As most femme people experience having to face the inherently misogynistic system, I want to show the numerous ways it impacts womxn as a collective.
The womxn’s body is sold, is a product, an object under capitalism. The womxn’s body needs fixed, altered, compressed, expanded, needs to be petite, dainty and fragile, needs protected. The womxn’s body can’t resemble a woman of age, in fact there’s a product we have to reverse the natural process of aging because the womxn needs to be digestible, youthful, plump but not big, plump like the baby fat of a little girls cheeks. The womxn’s body is not hers, the womxn’s body is a service, a vessel in which she can profit from, if not her directly profiting of it, there’s someone who can exploit the womxn’s body. Everyone wins.
I want to explore the many ways I’ve been directly impacted, through abuse to my body, being subjected to diet culture from youth, to the impacts of neglect to my body, it health affects, to the duality of preserving my body, for health or youth?
I will use painting to explore this subject as it’s a natural process for me, but I would like to explore other avenues to best articulate my ideas. I want to play with garment making in a painterly way, and explore print making as both garment making and printmaking have very capitalist histories.

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To begin with my project centred on themes regarding how capitalism impacts the body. As my first idea of the garment encapsulated my thoughts and concept really well I feel the natural progression of my subject matter began to evolve past the surface level I was working to before. After researching Ana Mendieta her physical use of body really inspired me to think of how I can almost preserve my own body through art, not in a way to preserve the youth of it, but rather to have a physical representation of how my mind and body was. That’s when I started to create body prints, at the time I was really unwell and there was a lot of change within my body, health scares all that jazz, through being skint at the moment or through the years of being skint and purposely neglecting my body? I’m not sure, but I do know that the system we are currently in, isn’t designed to help me out of the class I’m in, rather to keep me in it.
I gathered found objects as I couldn’t afford to buy materials to work on, and I found this almost deepened the original theme onto a new level, where it has extended into effecting my artistic process. I liked playing around with how to fit my ideas to these tiles, shelf’s, it felt restrictive, which is accurate to how it feels living under capitalism to me.
I think reflecting on my starting point, my finals are still relevant to it, the evolution of concepts changed based on my own navigation of the system currently, but it still is speaking on my original theme.
I find that even though it was harder for me to create due to lack of funds for materials and such, I still overcame these hurdles and I’m really proud of not only my finals but all the developmental works I created as well.

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I really enjoyed hearing what people thought about my final works, and they where quite accurate to what I was exploring!
I think I could have spoke more clearly of my overall process and developments throughout the project as it played a big part on the intricacy and reasoning of my finals.
I’m glad that people suggested to continue to sourcing materials to work on as this is something that liberated my development process and was wanting to bring into the graded unit.

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Exhibition research

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Presentation development task