ADAD FINAL
I began my exploration of binaries through researching gender and sexuality as well as art binaries such as organic, synthetic, clean and dirty. Andy Warhol's 'piss paintings' helped me to grasp the concept and rebellion against binaries as his investigation into materials refused the binary of cleanliness or dirtiness. Using a mixture of urine and diamonds to produce a beautiful piece of work. This lead continued my research into other more predominate binaries such as gender. ‘Binaries in Disruption’ was an exhibition lead by all LGBTI artists which examines how identity and sex are much more complicated ideas than how they presented in art and society. A piece from this exhibition in which line figures are drawn and a gap is left in place of genitals lead my initial brainstorm. From this stemmed my idea to create line drawings as they hold no gender or sexuality, they are vague and not interpretable. This resulted in my first work, but unfortunately I felt it was boring and lacking intrigue with its overwhelming empty space.
My aspiration to create an intriguing, vibrant poster generated my final design. I started by using block shapes to create two ambiguous figures kissing. By using block shapes with no connection it created a vague picture just as the line drawings did, assigning no gender to the figures and thus exploring both gender and sexuality binaries. For my first draft I filled the page with pastel colour as this an aesthetic I personally enjoy, but to tie together my initial goal, to rebel against gender and sexuality non binaries and celebrate pride, I decided to incorporate the vibrant colours of the gay pride flag and the non binary flag. Ultimately my poster has used two vague figures to force the audience to accept that gender nor sexuality needs to be assigned or questioned to accept that the figures are kissing.