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Interrupting Transmission By blocking the door of the elevator on the third floor, we prevented people accessing the lift in lower floors

Rebellion

Concept Statement

I have created a watercolor illustration depicting topless women of differing physical appearance. I have done this as a nonviolent rebellious act against the negativity-ruled beauty industry and its oppressive implications in our society. The Free the Nipple movement addresses the fact that women are unable to be topless (expose their nipples) in public spaces without being prosecuted- this implies that women’s bodies are inherently obscene. The Free the Nipple movement interests me a lot because it is seemingly a small issue (in comparison to larger feminist issues) but it is so representative of the inequality between men and women in our society. In our society, female breasts are considered shameful to look at unless they belong to a woman possessing a particular set of physical traits in which case, her breasts can be mass produced and sold as an objects of desire and entertainment. If women are allowed to expose their breasts in public as men are, the sexualisation of female nudity will lessen leading to decreased threat of sexual harassment and abuse.

When I began to think of what ‘rebellion’ could entail as far as feminist artwork, I immediately thought of the radical demonstrations conducted by women for the feminist movement. The group ‘Pussy Riot’ are a Russian punk band whose provocative demonstrations have won the attention of the world, offending their government and gaining support from thousands. A stunt of theirs in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was a performance of an obscenity laced song which attacked the Orthodox Church’s support for President Vladimir Putin, landed two of trio’s members in prison for two years. They continue to perform and gain a following, their actions gain them wide-spread coverage (therefore beginning a dialogue in cimmunities about feminist issues) but by acting so brazenly they allow themselves to be put at the mercy of the law. Mass demonstrations are another way in which feminist issues have been communicated, such as the 1968 Miss America Pagaent protest which saw hundreds of feminists banding together to abolish the sexist institution. The demonstration gained media attention and stood as a symbol encouraging feminist action across America. Methods of public stunts or mass organizations have merit in their ability to gain wide-spread attention, but whether they insight meaningful, sustainable change (for the better) is open to debate.

Nonviolence goes hand in hand with feminism- violence is destructive while non-violence is creative. Engaging in war is a male trait that has tainted humanity’s history, its aim is to possess goods or power at the expence of others. Peace movements and calls for nonviolent change throughout history have been led by women- for example the woman’s suffrage movement of the 19th and 20th century which overturned law and social order in America without violence. Sustainable change comes about from opening a discussion in communities and peacefully convincing those opposed of the valid nature of your position.

I have created this illustration with the intention of peace, acceptance and solidarity among women. The inclusion of women of different ethnic backgrounds, body types and specifically areola appearance is my attempt at depicting a solidarity between women that surpasses physical appearance. The pressure women face to look a particular way is enforced by many aspects of our society, I feel that with pressure coming from every angle women need to feel at least they can rely on their fellow sisters for support. The beauty industry (as well as mass media) encourages a reaction among women of scrutiny, comparison to self and flaw-seeking when viewing other females. My artwork has the purpose of simultaneously encouraging confidence and contentedness in one’s appearance as well as insighting women to be less judgemental and harsh towards fellow women.

Bibliography:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-25490161

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/feminism/a/miss_america_protest.htm

http://salsa.net/peace/conv/8weekconv5-1.html

http://freethenipple.com

#feminism cofa1002

Final work

Artist’s Statement

The concept I chose is concerned with the idea of a contemporary rebellion- when I first thought what this could mean I thought immediately of Feminism and the rebellion against the social norms that oppress groups of people/individuals.

The cause I narrowed in on is the standard of beauty women feel they need to meet/expect other women to meet and the need for a less competitive culture between women. With insecurity being encouraged by the beauty industry and TV, there exists a sense of comparison between every woman that affects the sense of community women should be feeling. In a world where women are already facing difficulty just for being born a woman, we need to make sure we treat all women with respect and dignity. Even though physical appearance is a small part of this, it is a first step towards a bigger goal.

I considered creating a propaganda style poster, reflecting the passion I feel for the Feminist causes. I favoured a less ‘in your face’ approach with the end result reminiscent of a personal development (etc) poster that might hang in a high school/public space. The images are cartoonised and have a very feminine and playful look. I want the poster to be enjoyable to view and to have a happy mood as well as be a bit confronting and hopefully evocative of some deep-thought towards accepting women for their choices.

#cofa1002 #feminisim

Assessment #3 Experiments

-TO BE ASSESSED-

For my last experiment I have worked with magazine cuttings as well. I have taken several women’s faces from an advertisement magazine and have removed a portion of each of their faces in the shape of a female (bathroom door) symbol.

This image is to address the expectations one’s gender comes with- especially the beauty industry towards women. No matter what these women do they will be seen a certain way because of their appearance. Another concept behind this piece is the fact that our society demands people fit in to one of two genders- excluding the existence of trans and non-binary individuals. No matter how these women feel inside, because their appearance is apparently female they are classed as female. A big part of each person is erased because of the automatic expectations that can be placed on women. In the image none of the women’s faces ‘fit’ perfectly inside the ‘female’ cutout, which emphasises the uniqueness of each person, that as women we are all completely different, even if we belong to the same gender.

Next I arranged the cutouts:

This piece isn’t as successful, I feel. It does still present the point that as women we are all different and may not fit exactly into what is expected/assumed of our gender.

#cofa1001 #feminism

Assessment #3 Experiments

-TO BE ASSESSED-

To emphasize the ridiculousness of the censorship of models in lingerie (not only by American Apparel -in previous post- but by many lingerie brands) I decided to ‘censor’ the breasts of fully-clothed models from Cosmopolitan (April 2014) magazine.

These images are my way of pointing out how offensive and backwards it is to censor breasts- by censoring the breasts the image becomes more ostentatious and offensive then visible nipples could. The over-sexualisation of women in our society is outrageous and I hope that these images are evocative of the wrongness of censorship of this nature, and perhaps will get people thinking about the objectification every woman is subjected to.

#cofa1001 #feminisim #freethenipple

Assessment #3 Experiments

Another way in which I decided to use the process of erasure in art making was through sticking layers of tissue papaer over one another then tearing back through the layers.

This experiment wasn’t nearly as successful as I had hoped. When I was cutting the sheets to A4, I did not consider that the grain of the paper would rip easily in one direction and not the either (either vertically or horizontally) so the different layers ripped in different directions. The end effect isn’t very pleasing

#cofa1001 #artsandcrafts #editting #erasure

Assessment #3 Research

So far I am not sure which of the topics my experiments are related most to, as the ideas I have had relate to most of the options- most especially erasure and editing.

An issue that interests me that relates to editing/erasure is the outcry that occurred in February of this year, over the clothing brand American Apparel’s choice to airbrush over the models’ nipples and pubic hair in the lingerie section of their website.

Images from: http://jezebel.com/american-apparel-has-started-erasing-pubic-hair-nipple-1692457350

Here is a sample of images that were on the American Apparel website before:

To me its obvious that its important to keep the images as uneditted as possible. If I’m shopping for clothing online, I want to have accurate images so I get a good idea of how the garment will fit when it arrives. This is a sample of images that have come out in February:

The images have been highly airbrushed to remove the nipples and pubic hair of the model. American Apparel's CEO Paula Schneider, said she was trying to make the images on the website less ‘pornographic’. It is disturbing and highly offensive to women that the natural features of the female body have been erased due to the idea that women’s bodies are sexual objects- therefore they are indecent and offensive to the public.

I find it ridiculous that these elements of femininity have been edited as we can still fill in the blanks when we see the edited image it isn’t more ‘inappropriate’ as we can still work out that ‘yes, it is a young woman in transparent clothes’...

#american apparel #feminism #cofa1001

Ways of Seeing

Inspiration for the issues I’m addressing

#karinwaysofseeing

Ways of Seeing

When I first started to consider what the term ‘ways of seeing’ could entail, I immediately began to relate it to the issues I am already strongly interested in. The fight for gender equality is something I am passionate about, and I have become aware that my role in the world as an artist is a position I should be using to create awareness and get people thinking about these issues.

The way that gender roles relate to ways of seeing is that society’s rules and norms are affected by outdated, skewed, unfair sets of ideas on what is right and what is wrong- this is what causes inequality between male and female humans, and between those who dont identify as either male or female.

Free the Nipple is a movement created by a group of New York women who question the fact that a woman’s bare chest is seen as inapporpriate and indecent when a man’s chest is perfectly fine to show in public. Participating in mass public demonstrations, they have shown the brutality police have responded to the topless women with- which raises the question, why is violence better than the display of a nipple? This movement has generated a lot of attention over the past year especially, with the hashtag #freethenipple.

The other issue I wanted to address was gender roles in a general sense. There are many aspects of our society that separate female norms from male norms, women shop in the ‘women’s’ section, men shop in the ‘men’s’ section, women are emotional, men are physically stronger etc Although most people live their whole life in these norms and never feel discomfort from them, there is an evergrowing community of people coming forward as transgender- people who feel they have been born in the wrong the body, there is also the non-binary community- people who do not identify with either of the set genders and choose to be addressed by ‘they’, ’them’ instead of ‘he/she’, ’his/hers’. Even if one isn’t aware of the struggles these individuals have, everybody can still relate to the little girl who hates pink and wants to play rugby with the boys but is scolded for wanting to do so- not everybody does fit in with the gender roles society has made for us. GENDER IS A RAINBOW, NOT EITHER PINK OR BLUE.

#karinwaysofseeing #freethenipple #genderequality

loverofbeauty

visual-poetry

»yes/no« by markus raetz

[via]

ambernorman-unsw

Love this, ties in with ‘Ways of Seeing’

COFA Assessment 1- Box Transformation

For my transformation I decided to represent the fact that women are vessels for life, their wombs being ‘containers’ for new babies. I used a process of coating glitter glue in layers over a clear box to represent the womb, the uneven translucency creating an ‘organic’ effect. I formed a fetus from Plasticine to place inside and chose a warm light to illuminate it, light representing life. The end product is fairly effective, and overall I was pleased with the process- dealing with difficult materials I had not experimented with before. Including forming the baby, which was difficult as I had to be quite gentle as the connection between the parts was fragile- reminding me of the fragility of life, how the nurturing of a womb is what fetuses need to stay safe and healthy as they grow. the hard plastic used for the womb represents this hardiness of the vessel which protects the fetus as it grows.

I feel the end-product is more effective in person.

#cofa1001

Final Transformation

The concept I decided to go for was based on the first research task we were given in week 1- one of the idioms I found that was at the top of the list was ‘box’ being a slang, crude term for a vagina. This, although immediately distasteful to me, got me thinking about how as women- we are a vessel for life. Owning a womb is owning a container for a precious new life. Utilising the experience from the experiment based on the 7 key words, I decided to reuse the methods of glitter-glue and also lighting from within. I began with a clear food-storage box that I had to sand to remove the pictures/measures.

Then I used red glitter glue to achieve a translucent sparkely surfuce that was uneven- organic looking, like a womb

Then I added vein-like lines in magenta and pink to add to the orgaic effect

While drying overnight it sank somewhat, the patterns not being so clearly defined. I am still happy with the effect even though it was unintentional.

I then created a fetus form from red and peach coloured Plasticine.

Next post- finished product and review

#cofa1001 #outsidethebox

Experimentation

After adding the glitter glue I proceeded to burn holes in the box using candles (incorporating the word ‘burn’). It was interesting to see how the glitter glue reacted, it bubbled and turned black in some parts and started to peel off the box in others. Finally I put a light inside,incorporating the words ‘imagine’ and ‘wire’. What I really loved about it was seeing the blackened burned parts of the inside, wih their exposed layers etc illuminated on the inside. It also created a cool kind of night-light/lantern with the light throwing bright patches on the wall.