AprilMAD

[bridiepeacocke]

Experimentation with Sculpture

We experimented with moulding clay in order to create the blank body parts that will have images projected on them. I aimed to create a human eyeball! As I was in the process of making the eyeball we began discussing painting logos on the body as a statement, so instead of carving a normal iris into the eye I decided to carve the Chanel logo to show obsession with material objects.

Here is my Chanel eyeball, which unfortunately did not survive the travel home so could not be included in the final event. 

I also constructed a miniature Opera House out of clay purely for research and examination of the structure. It also did not survive the ride home, which is ok as it was never intended to be included in the final work. The structure of the Opera House is not mimicked by my miniature sculpture of the landmark, but by a collection of sculpted hands spaced out. 

[bridiepeacocke]

Capitalist Prostitution

Our group has been fuelled by the concept of using one’s body as capital (as discussed in the Week 5 Body Politics slides) and current affairs concerning the controversial projection of advertisements on Sydney’s iconic Opera House to produce the idea of capitalist prostitution. Our concept involves the idea of selling body parts as advertising space to make a statement about current fads of logo-mania as well as the vacuous selling out of cultural icons for commercial purposes.

Through projecting a series of film clips onto objects and a screen, our event metaphysically makes a statement about the current status of our society that worships at the altar of brands such as Christian Louboutin and Gucci that exploit their customers by using them as advertising space. We have used our bodies to ironise the concept of capitalism through actions such as painting the bottoms of our feet red, symbolic of the Louboutin shoe, painting dollar signs on our finger nails and writing statements on our bodies.

Directive statements such as “Screen your race across my face” are bold enough to make our audience question their implicit role in our capitalist society posing important questions about the necessity of material objects. 

Our event is multifaceted through the projection of these videos onto blank sculptures that represent both the human body and the Sydney Opera House, therefore making a bold statement about the power of advertising in terms of our bodies. 

[aprilmad-blog]

The slogan “Screen your race across my face” was intended as a reference to the horse race to be screened across the Sydney Opera House. However as it was ambiguous, possibly with a racial context, the slogan “My face, your $$ space” was used instead.

[aprilmad-blog]

Capitalist Prostitution: Group A

We had a practice run today and are happy with how the sculptures & performance video work together well. We have all created performance videos which are being edited together and will be reflected on the sculptures and a screen behind the works.

[aprilmad-blog]

Capitalist prostitution: Group A

In addition to making some small body part sculptures, I am making 5 models of hands that will sit together to mimick the sails of the Sydney Opera house. This references the debate around screening a horse race on the SOH.

Here are the hands still under construction.

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Group A collaboration

Sharing Neshat’s ‘Rebellious Silence’ is a visually affective example of an artist writing on her body.

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Collaboration: Group A

Initially we discussed doing something based on Context & Time, with one idea being around 3 still lifes - one in the past, one in the present & the 3rd in the future. This was inspired by ORI Gersht’s ‘Pomegranate’.

However after sharing a number of ideas we settled on the topic of body politics and body parts. Our focus has been drawn from the recent debate around screening / advertising a horse race on the Opera House, which many were opposed to on the ground that it sold out cultural icons for crass commercial purposes.

We will make small sculptures of body parts with the performance aspect being a video to be partially screened on the sculptures & partially on a larger screen behind. We are also going to experiment using smaller projectors to screen different images onto various sculptures.

The video will feature us doing various things to parts of our bodies such as painting the soles of our feet red (as in Christian Louboutin shoes), nail polish with $$ & writing on our bodies indicating they are available for commercial use. Our topic is ‘Commercial Prostitution ‘.

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first go at sculpture for assessment #3 by group - using soap and modelling clay

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Our progress: Group A

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Assessment 3: Capitalist Prostitution

Our Group A is Bridie, Amelia, Indra & me (April). We’ve workshopped our ideas today to refine our approach and the performance. We will be working on the concept of using the body as a billboard. We will make body parts plus a video.

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Collaborative assessment: Group A

We’ve decided to do something on the topic of body politics. As a starting point I’ve made 2 small clay body parts; a foot and a partially cyborg head.

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Glitch: an irritating image on the whiteboard that we cant fully erase

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For ‘glitch’

April hates the diagram on the whiteboard. It’s been there for weeks.

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Assessment 2: Video presentation ‘Protest Child Abuse’

https://vimeo.com/290823672

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Assessment 2: Concept statement & bibliography

Can creative arts be rebellious when rebellion has become cannonised in art, design and media histories. What would contemporary rebellion look like?

Concept statement:

Three new double-sided banners continue my critique of and protest against, child abuse within the Catholic Church; its turning a blind eye to offending priests and reluctance to disclose abuse. All images started with an initial concept that developed as work progressed. I frequently decided an image was finished part way through what I’d initially planned. These ‘incomplete’ images tell of an unfinished story. More is required before society, particularly victims, is satisfied.

For all banners, the fabric is raw and unhemmed with loose threads evident, suggestive of the Church’s fading reputation and the erosion of public trust. The religious iconography depicted is deliberately imperfect.

For my final presentation I placed the banners insitu beside a statue at St Canice Catholic Church at Rushcutters Bay and took video and still images. I also used videos of the church interior and confessional doors. I had planned to use videos taken of an empty children’s playground but as I edited the final work I felt those shots didn’t fit well so haven’t used them.

Banner 1 (side A: Disappearing Cross, side B: Blindness)

Disappearing Cross:A pale blue cross with soft edges fades into a background of lightly applied gesso on visible black denim, symbolising priests being men of the cloth and dark secrets they hold that cannot be contained regardless of whitewashing attempts. Truth breaks through.

Blindness takes a different approach; it has a strong black background and bright colours. Yet the bright images are incomplete, broken crosses drawn blindfold, with only my hands feeling for the edge of the fabric. No perfect cross exists. While a large underlying red cross is distinguishable it is rough and disjointed. The fragmented crosses evidence what happens when a blind eye is turned. No matter what glorious colours might be used, the crosses are broken.

Banner 2 (side A: Sacred Heart & Lamb, side B: Lost Heart)

Sacred Heart & Lamb combines two religious symbols. The innocent, pure sacrificial lamb references children sacrificed by the Church; first by abuse then by protecting offending priests while refusing to acknowledge and disclose awful truths. Were children sacrificed as a vehicle for offending priests to cleanse themselves of carnal desires?  The sacred heart, usually representative of Jesus’ deep divine love for humanity, bleeds on the lamb suggesting dying divine love and lost protection of innocent children.

Lost Heart: We see from sparsely applied white paint that something in the shape of the Sacred Heart is disappearing with a void taking the place of deep divine love. Soon there will be nothing resembling the underlying principles of the Catholic Church.

Banner 3 (side A: Stitched Crosses, side B: Covered Underside)

Stitched Crosses: Three crosses are neatly stitched yet visibly untidy. There are loose threads and raw, crooked edges on the fabric which itself was once torn in two. The crosses are incomplete or unraveling, indicating the issue of child abuse within the Church is not yet fully dealt with; new revelations continue to surface. This is causing the structure of the Church to unravel with faith being lost. Many see the Church’s response as inadequate and incomplete. The brightly coloured stitching outlining fundamental iconography of three crosses does not compensate for the inadequacies in the fabric of the Church. Further, small almost invisible stitches are apparent on close inspection indicative of an underside cover-up.

Covered Underside: The underside of stitched cloth is not usually intended to be seen so additional fabric has been applied to this side in an attempted cover-up. However this fabric is translucent leaving the underside visible. Knotted threads show through, as do the rough edges of the covering fabric. The attempted cover-up also leaves a mark on the public side of the banner. Its stitching shows through and not being a good fit it prevents the public side from sitting well. This is a visual metaphor for the Church’s cover-up, pretending nothing wrong has occurred; its refusal for many years to acknowledge and disclose criminal sexual conduct of some priests. Ultimately this approach was futile, many truths have surfaced and become visible.

Audio:

I’ve created a basic sound track using audio I taped outside a church many years back with additional audio recorded from a children’s playground. I’ve also left portions of the track silent to represent the Church’s silence and also give gravity to this issue.

Bibliography:

D. Carrier, ‘Connoisseurship is not a dirty word’ in Hyperallergic,2 September 2018, viewed on 3 September 2018. https://hyperallergic.com/458332/the-eye-philippe-costamagna-new-vessel-press-2018/

M. Del Rosario ‘List of Catholic Symbols and Meanings’ in Owlcation, 5 June 2018, viewed on 3 August 2018. https://owlcation.com/humanities/catholic-symbols

Monika Drozynska, “Projects’ http://monika.drozynska.pl/

T Redwood, ‘Skeletons in the Nation’s Cupboard, Warwick Thornton on being an Aboriginal Artist’. Metro Magazine, Issue 181, 2014, pp. 84-87.

A. Serrano, Immersions. http://andresserrano.org/series/immersions

H. Zafiropoulos ‘Newcomers” One artist’s attempt to change the way Poland talks about migration’ in The Calvert Journal, 19 February 2018. Viewed on 9 August 2018. https://www.calvertjournal.com/articles/show/9664/newcomers-poland-migration-art

(Author not identified) ‘Andres Serrano’ in Art Net, http://www.artnet.com/artists/andres-serrano/

(Author not identified) ‘Warwick Thornton: Stranded’ in Stills Gallery. Viewed on 31 August 2018. http://www.stillsgallery.com.au/artists/thornton/

(Author not identified) “Archie Moore’ in The Commercial. Viewed on 24 August 2018. https://thecommercialgallery.com/artist/archie-moore/biography

[aprilmad-blog]

FInalising presentation:

Today I wanted to shoot video & stills of my work at a local Catholic Church. I encountered a number of difficulties: first the invisible tape I intended to use didn’t hold so I had to resort to masking tape which is much more noticeable. Secondly my primary camera stopped working and as I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to recover what I had already shot I re-shot everything using my phone.

A few church goers asked me what Iwas doing or looked at me curiously however no one took exception to my work.

Once I got home I was able to retrieve shots I thought I’d lost. I think I’ve now finalised a video presentation having added some background audio. Will have another review tomorrow before finalising.

[aprilmad-blog]

For my final (6th) image I again wanted to focus on something that was disappearing like the disappearing faith in the Church. On one side of this banner I’ve painted a distinct sacred heart and lamb, so on this other side I’ve painted a disappearing sacred heart. I wanted the sacred heart to be softly visible, to be gradually disappearing. I feel maybe I could have done something even more vague but am also happy with the soft feel of this image so will leave it as it is.

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Once I realised I could do 3 double sided banners rather than the 2 initially planned I wasn’t sure what to do on the 2 additional sides, especially as I was not allowing myself to use words. After considering & mentally discarding some possibilities I decided to paint crosses on one of the extra sides with my eyes closed. This would symbolise the Church turning a blind eye to child abuse. I initially used oil paint but found it didn’t leave enough of a mark unless I continually went over the intended image. So I switched to oil stick which I felt was really effective. It’s not too hard to produce something resembling a cross with your eyes shut but the images are far from perfect; they are disjointed and incomplete. In drawing these images I allowed my hands to feel for the edges of the fabric but otherwise was ‘blind’.

I’m happy with the resultant disjointed, imperfect crosses; an analogy for the imperfections the issue of child abuse within the Church is exposing.

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Stitching:

These are close up images of how I will likely leave my double-sided poster where I’ve used stitching. The concept for the final image changed as I was making this poster and as I realised that the unfinished crosses said more than if complete. They talk of an unsatisfactory issue, one that is far from finally dealt with. They talk of untidiness, raw edges and attempted cover ups.