Jessica Wonta

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Manchester art gallery

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Manchester art gallery

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The dress (meant to be). I had an idea of creating a tufted dress, allot of planning went behind this creating multiple different patterns to see how the dress would lie on me and discovering what materials would work best. The tufted section is made up of thin wool, fluffy merino wool and string. This took a week of 9-4 days Hand tufting with the tufting gun, eventually I started to get blisters on my hands and very sore arms. Hand stitching the tufted section at the back was the hardest as the latex blocked any kind of movement for the kneedle this is where thimbles came into use. The fragile section was tape patched onto cotton fabric, I had to also create patterns for this and expand the shape to create a ripple affect. At the waist there is an opening on the left side which is held together with Velcro, this meant I could easily get in and out of the dress and would easily fit into it. Originally I wanted to create a dress but realising how much times I had spent on creating patterns and just alone making the bottom half of the dress I decided to present it like a two piece and also tried wearing the skirt just above my boobs, Worn either way the dress/ co-ord worked. allot of time, effort and money went into this dress but to me it was worth it as it has allowed me to explore in more diverse territories I wouldn’t usually.

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“I am not a target” my interpretation of a quote I heard a friend say whilst being on a night out. Ending the “it’s a nightclub environment” stigma.

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The bacon bralette. This was horrible, the bacon was so greasy on my skin it honestly knocked me sick, but on the bright side the images turned out great. The photographer (rox mawdsley) tried to create a dim cold fridge vibe and you can see in the images the defect was captured. We simply wrapped the bacon around my top half with string so this could not be kept as it just flopped of my skin.

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The steak bralette, I hand stitched the meat together using a needle and thin linen thread using a slip stitch so the pieces of meat would fit exactly next to each other and no meat would be wasted. I used 5 pieces of finely cut skirt steak, stitching the meat wasn’t hard to do, except when the needle collided with a fatty bit of the meat. Stitching the meat back together just made me feel creeped out that this is a cow and i am stitching it back together to wear on my naked chest. The smell wasn’t horrendous it just smelled like raw meat, when I put the meat on that’s when it was getting very surreal as the temperature of the meat gained warmth from my body, the meat started to go slack around my neck and sag on my chest. I had the meat on my chest for approximately 10 minutes I took pictures on my phone in my bedroom with a white background so the pictures aren’t perfect but you can clearly see what i have created.

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Patterns and mannequin as prep for dress

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Images taken from programme day at media city, a nice day of understanding other artists concepts and ideas

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Parcel tape dress, I had put cling film around my body and then the tape so it wasn’t as harsh on my skin. I created this dress mainly to get a true shape of my body and was able to create patterns from as the cling film stopped it from sticking to itself. When cutting the dress off I couldn’t actually reach the bottom so my boyfriend cut it off from the bottom, we hadn’t realised that ilhe was actually cutting into my skin. From this I learnt not to use cling film underneath as it was harder to cut off.

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Pink glitter half crop top.

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Exposed exhibition feauturing artist’s work from my course. Looking back on the gallery group and what they had achieved from an artist perspective I wish I chose that module as it would have gave me the experience of what it’s like preparing for an exhibition for the public.

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Some images taken from gallery’s in Cardiff visited whilst taking part in an exhibition myself. The exhibition mainly revolves around sexual assault/ harassment and feminism. But in the end any work was really allowed to submit as the person hosting the exhibition wanted the space to be filled. From my view and being invited as an artist to show my work the exhibition was not well organised at all. We was told it was an exhibition but what we didn’t know is that it was at a conservative club, so we made do of what we could. Then when we arrived it turned out to be a charity event, roughly about 7 people came this event/ exhibition was not advertised enough especially on social media. In my space I exhibIted my steak rug, washing line of “this is not consent” , two other sculptures I had created in the right corner and also tried to sell prints, but as only 7 people came I didn’t sell anything. From this I learnt that if I’m going to take part in an exhibition again I will ask all the questions I need answers for at the beginning and also make sure the event is advertised properly

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More tufted pieces made during placement

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The collages I made whilst working on my placement on the days dedicated to my studio practise and not helping out and doing workshops.

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Artists and Articles

https://wam.umn.edu/2017/04/10/7-artists-using-their-practice-to-address-gendered-and-sexual-violence/

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/stanford-rape-case-read-the-impact-statement-of-brock-turners-victim-a7222371.html

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/feb/13/locker-room-banter-trump-men-gary-mcnair-misogynist-male-language

https://www.vox.com/2018/9/17/17869368/brett-kavanaugh-confirmation-sexual-assault-what-we-know

https://inews.co.uk/news/long-reads/this-is-not-consent-thong-rape-case-ireland-protests/

https://www.instagram.com/metoocardiff/

https://www.instagram.com/metoomvmt/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BowgK6cFQwy/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BotmjUMlABE/

https://www.instagram.com/sexualassaultawareness_/