Statement:
Statement:
My artwork is concerned with investigating and visualising the emotional and psychological effects of insecurities afflicting us in daily life. Louise Bourgeois’ expression of personal pain throughout her art – being ‘not ashamed of our helplessness’[1]/pain – prompted me to explore my own insecurities in order to reflect through creating and provide emotional resonance for audiences.
Shield From Judgement is a crocheted and felted wearable sculpture/mask easing the insecurity of being negatively perceived through calming textures and obscuring design. The overextended design was informed by challenging 1800’s satirical imagery of women in poke bonnets to give agency towards the wearer. Jean Paul Satre’s 1944 play No Exit – exploring ‘Hel is- other people!’[2] and their perceptions - informed including crocheted purple tendrils over the sculptures opening to conceal the wearers face from others whilst including gaps to see out for themselves.
The performance Shielding Anonymity (enacted in Reading) and reenactment Re-Shielding Anonymity (reenacted in Oxford) explores the themes of and involved myself wearing Shield From Judgement. Walking around busy streets in the mask/sculpture emphasises where the insecurity is experienced and was influenced by Adrian Piper’s Catalysis (1970s) performance series which '[intruded]... upon other people's realities'[3] through smell and appearance. Here, the concealment from the mask’s structure confronts the public on their awareness of not being able to judge the performers identity.
The reenactment was prompted by Diana Taylor’s theory of the repertoire, whereby embodied practices ‘keeps and transforms choreographies of meaning’[4]. Reenacting again I became aware the mask both minimises and fuels the insecurity through its design, making the performance a balancing act between calm and anxiousness.
Mirrored Belonging are two
crocheted masks/sculptures investigating longing to belong in relationships. The
near identical designs with unique embroidered texts reflects the balance
between togetherness versus individuality. The crocheted forms and their colours
were informed by a classic deck-of-cards face-cards due to their merging patterns
inadvertently relating to the idea of connection.The performance Mirrored Together and reenactment Re-Mirrored Together are participatory performances envisioning Mirrored Belonging’s themes and including the masks/sculptures. Both involved myself wearing one of the masks, the other on an accessible stand and instructions encouraging audiences to wear the vacant mask, leave when desired and carryout movements I’d mirror (reflecting changing yourself and adopting friends mannerisms in relationships).
Tino Sehegal’s audience dependent and ‘not set’[5] situations informed the open-ended performance rules, encouraging audiences to execute their own movements. The first performances instructions placed out of sight effected participation, to amend this the reenactment involved distributing the instructions beforehand which encouraged further participation.
Faulty Connections is a filmed performance, in a public garden, extending Mirrored Belonging’s themes through two performers wearing the masks/sculptures and dense matching crocheted costumes. As the performances duration extends the performers intimate movements and conjoined costumes become more disconnected, referencing artist Franz Erhard’s activated fabric sculptures and the ‘possible relationships the objects [prompt when worn]’[6], here exemplifying a relationship uncomfortably unravelling.
Internal Tower is a crocheted and scrap fabric wearable mask/sculpture examining fluctuating self-worth in relationships. The crocheted protrusions emphasise the uncomfortable/disheartening realities of a negative self-perception taking over. Sommer Roman’s textile sculpture The Queen influenced challenging myself to create a towering design and experimenting with a vibrant colour palette to contrast the themes.
When Connections Collide is a five person performance visualising the complexities of relationships expressed through performers having to mirror the unpredictable actions of other performers that wore the identical mask to their own. The mirroring is intended to be game-like, playing according to certain rules to fit in, with movements slightly off indicating reacting in real-time.
Self-doubters, two blue and green crocheted masks/sculpture, follow a similar pattern to and were performed alongside Mirrored Belonging in the performance indicating isolated friendship cliques. A final performer (myself) wearing the mask/sculpture Connector, combining all masks designs, entered the space at the end initiating all to mirror them reflecting group dynamics.
My degree show piece Rules of Connection is a three person performance exploring how bodies are shaped and relate with one another within relationships. This is accentuated through the wearable sculptures the performers wear, including a mask/sculpture from Mirrored Belonging, Self-doubters and Connector alongside connectable matching crocheted costume.
When conjoined, the movements are influenced by physical rules the performers abide by relating to social expectations of friendships e.g. playing along and being polite. Each performer has what Evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar refers to as ‘their own unique social fingerprint’[7]which becomes apparent the more detached they’re from one another, influencing the tone and direction of the performers movements. After the performance, the wearable sculptures stand alone on personalised wooden stands lingering on like the ongoing complexities of relationships.
[1]Art21, “How Louise Bourgeois Confronts the Past through Sculpture,” created by Susan Sollins and Susan Dowling, uploaded on YouTube October 31, 2024, educational video, 2:55 to 2:57, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NloOARl7NaI.
[2]Jean Paul Satre, “No Exit,” in No Exit & The Flies, (Alfred A. Knopf, 1977), 61, uploaded to Internet Archive October 21, 2022, https://archive.org/details/noexitflies0000jean_p5n1/page/n7/mode/2up?q=Hell+is+other+people.
[3]Lucy Lippard and Adrian Piper, “Catalysis: An Interview with Adrian Piper,” The Drama Review: TDR 16, no. 1 (March 1972): 77. https://doi.org/10.2307/1144734.
[4] Diana Taylor, The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas (Duke University Press, 2003) 20, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/reading/detail.action?docID=1167937.
[5]Louisa Buck, “Without a trace: Interview with Tino Sehgal,” The Art Newspaper, March 1, 2006, https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2006/03/01/without-a-trace-interview-with-tino-sehgal.
[6]Acatia Finbow, “Franz Erhard Walther born 1939 Werksatz (Workset) 2008,” Tate, July, 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/performance-at-tate/case-studies/franz-erhard-walther.
[7]Robin Dunbar, “The hidden rules that determine which friendships matter to us,” New Scientist, March 3, 2021, https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24933240-700-the-hidden-rules-that-determine-which-friendships-matter-to-us/.
Bibliography:
Art21. “How Louise Bourgeois Confronts the Past through Sculpture.” Created by Susan Sollins and Susan Dowling. Uploaded on YouTube October 31, 2024. Educational video, 13:20. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NloOARl7NaI.
Buck, Louisa. “Without a trace: Interview with Tino Sehgal.”The Art Newspaper, March 1, 2006. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2006/03/01/without-a-trace-interview-with-tino-sehgal.
Dunbar, Robin. “The hidden rules that determine which friendships matter to us.” New Scientist. March 3, 2021. https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24933240-700-the-hidden-rules-that-determine-which-friendships-matter-to-us/.
Finbow, Acatia. “Franz Erhard Walther born 1939 Werksatz (Workset) 2008.” Tate. July, 2016. https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/performance-at-tate/case-studies/franz-erhard-walther.
Lippard, Lucy, and Adrian Piper. “Catalysis: An Interview with Adrian Piper.” The Drama Review: TDR 16, no. 1 (March 1972): 76 to 78. https://doi.org/10.2307/1144734.
Satre, Jean Paul. “No Exit.” in No Exit & The Flies. Alfred A. Knopf, 1977. Uploaded to Internet Archive October 21, 2022. https://archive.org/details/noexitflies0000jean_p5n1/page/n7/mode/2up?q=Hell+is+other+people.
Taylor, Diana. The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas. Duke University Press, 2003. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/reading/detail.action?docID=1167937.