I Think You Need A Bit Of Meat

I've realised I've started to neglect the other side of my project which is looking at the western work and how being over sized is nothing to be praised. 

Shared article from the metro paper on obesity

In the western world obesity is looked down on both because of physical appearance and health reasons. Being slim is praised and they is a lot of controversy around the use of ' skinny ' models in the fashion world as people see it as a bad representation of what 'normal' people look like. I wanted to play with this idea and strip down everything and just look at the skeleton of a female body because rather you're a size 6 or size 16 you're skeleton will still look alike. I started to draw some initial ideas from this . I also included inspiration from the artists as was looking at before and came up with a handful of desgins. 

I'm Not A Piece Of Meat !

When stuffing my tights it started to remind me of the process of stuffing sausages and the way in which the meat I pushed and forced into a casing of intestine. Which can be compared to the way fatty tissue stretches the skin out. Which this I came across a range of beautiful art work which inspired me to created some which which included some textiles samples. 

Ruud Van Empel, Casey Weldon & Victoria Reynolds

The last artist was my main inspiration as her work is unbelievable beautiful. 

Satin fabric,  netting, heat pressed inside a plastic wallet with red water  & graphick pen with water.

What's Nude ?

nude

adjective: nude

1. 1.

   wearing no clothes; naked.

   "a painting of a nude model"
2. 2.

   of a pinkish-beige colour.

   "nude tights"

   

   Christian Louboutin

   
   

   
   

   What's nude ? I also try to be self-aware by questioning and challenging decisions i make everyday. Last week when i went out to buy a pair of skin tone nude tights so i could stuff them and create something which looks like fatty tissue. 
   
   

   Automatically i bought a pinkish beige colour as at the time i think that resembled skin tone.  This assumption clearly incorrect as i am not that skin tone and so are a lot of other people. I then  thought to my self why was this a naturally choice. I was especially surprised without myself as i try and make a point to included females of all colours (darker tones) in my work to help with the promotion of females of colour on the runway during all seasons ( not just summer). What made me think that nude has to be a pinkish colour as people come in a range of different colours. 
   
   

   I think my choice goes beyond the project as I'm looking at both the western word and Africa so i cant blame my choice on my project. I thought about it and i think it goes deeper than me just being in a hurry and picking up the first thing i see because 1. I wasn't in a hurry and 2. i set out intentionally looking for that colour. I think it's about the media and the world around me as the world has bought me up to believe 'nude' in relation to colour means a pinkish colour. Also the fact i have studied art for such a long time and when i teacher would say to me "Rachel make a nude colour" the 'correct' choice would be a pinkish and if i was printing lets say a 1o year old Indian girl they would refer to the colour choices as "browns". So you could see how this idea of the colour nude has been hammered into my head. And it's not just me i see people in my class using pink and beige colours when drawing  rather than colours that actually closely match their skin tone. 

Researching

I decided to research more into the African culture as a way to help me get started on looking at how obesity is seen. I will use this information to compare it to the western culture. I wanted to ensure I went about this in the current way, as in the African culture there is certain things I can say or ask someone who is older than me as a sign of respect. With this in mind I wanted to make one question which will help me answer a lot more, I wanted something that was straight to the point be was respectful to ask. After careful thinking I came up with the question of " what is the ideal size you look for in a women?". To make this easier I presented this question in two ways, one way was visually showing body shapes of different sized women to represent the categories. As for me I put them in groups of UK women size.

My results was as expected so I'm now going to compare these results to makes who live in the western world. 

Stuff It !

Yesterday after uni I went to Stratford to buy some cheap pillows so I could cut them up and take out the stuffing for today, I also bought a pack of skin tone tights from the pound the store. My aim was to stuff the tights to portray fatty tissue. 

I spent most of my time today creating this, by stuffing the tights, twisting, knotting and laying the tights, I also painted on to of the tights in certain places with water colours trying to make it look as realistic as possible. After this I placed the tights under the photo copier. I was inspired by the artist Jenny Saville when she painting humans pressed up against glass. 

 

I wanted to recreate this with the help of the photocopier by pushing and pulling on the tights while scanning it in. I made a range of photocopies which i then want to man illistructions from. The whole point of this is play around with shape and help my creative juices to start flowing. On Tuesday I also want to play around with the tights on a mannequin and draw from this. 

( Authors Own 19/03/2015)

I also printed some of the prints I created yesterday onto Neoprene using heat transfer, i feel like I've complete a 'good' amount of work today but I'm slightly disappointed i didn't have time to do mannequin work. I really wanted to forces on more textiles side this week and next week. I've even made a print that i really do like, I'm thinking of maybe incorporating this into my final outcome. The aim of these two weeks was to create a textile samples and prints, I have made some prints so next week i will mainly be focusing on creating samples. 

(Authors Own 19/03/2015)

Foie Gras Anyone ?

Today I was looking into my mood board and drawing theme ideas from this. My aim was to produce a range of prints from my drawings. 

I took a photography of someone socially considered as 'slim' and manipulated her body shape to create someone who is overweight. From these drawings and created a range of developments experimenting with color and aliment.   

( Authors Own 18/03/2015)

I wanted to show the concept of being 'forced' to be fat by changing the models size. I started brainstorming words and I thought of how goose are force fed to produce a more desirable outcome with is Foie Gras this can be compared to the way females are forced fed in the Mauritania tribe to be more desirable to males. With this idea I came up with this print which I want to print of fabric tomorrow.  

( Authors Own 18/03/2015 )

Forced To Be Fat - FMP

My concept is based around the juxtaposition of two societies in two cultural and how they perceive obesity. I’m looking at the Maruitania tribe in Africa where children are forced feed in order to find a husband by taking dangerous animal growth hormones to fulfill men’s love for larger females. This is because obesity is seen as a sign of wealth and big is believe to be beautiful. I’m comparing this to how obesity is seen to be something to be ashamed of in western society and men who have a fat fetish. I will look at artist such as Jenny Saville as she explored the human body by folding and mutilating fatty tissue as she said “I like to the down and dirty side of things” which I also want to portray. In terms of the process in which I’m going to work in I’m going to look at artist such as Philippe Pasque and Paul Wright as their work is very abstract and expressive. Some processes I may explore in order to portray my version are heat pressing and marbling to build interesting textured layers, exploring range of paint medium in an expressive approach, to name a few. I want to be very expressive and explore the idea of laying and freedom. Today is the first day of starting my project so I started off by making initial research. I've looked looking into the Maruitania tribe and found out a lot of interesting facts. I've started to make an emotional connection to the subject as I've found out facts which I find highly disturbing. The issue within the tribe is accepted as the norm although it is life-threatening. The issues is compared to what happens to animals which is never a good comparison. As well as looking deeply into the tribe I've made a range of moodboards to visually show my concept and the forms of research and inspiration.  I've also made an timetable for the next two weeks to ensure I stay on track and to push me further as it will show me the minimum i should be achieving everyday. I'm feeling very positive so fair as this is an independent project I am self lead which means I'm able to be free and explore something that really interests me. As well as making a timetable I have planed to interview a few male (African) adults as a form of research.