Once given the subject of erasure as my body of work, immediately censorship was my chosen theme. Exploring censorship of art, the body, censorship of speech and freedom of expression. Censorship in the world has become a major issue. Not only did I want to focus on censorship of the body, shying away from the media, I also wanted to address humanities censorship to the topic of sex. For thousands of years, the female body has been too taboo for the naked eye to see. So I wanted to make a statement, through art, exploring the ridiculousness of censorship, not only for women but for men as well.
Many campaigns have been held to address this issue, yet society still sees the naked body, and sex, a natural process of life, something to be locked away, a crime, too crude for public society. In 2014, Tree, a sculpture by the American artist Paul McCarthy, was erected in the middle of Place Vendome. This Tree resembled a ‘but plug’ which ofcourse coursed major controvery. Im not saying that all art should be this extreme, but shock of aftermath really revealed societies censorship to anything sexual. I wanted to bring that back.
Spencer Tunick’s work was a major influence of mine. His body of work explores and expands the social, political and legal issues surrounding nude art in the public sphere. I used Tunick’s works as an inspiration as it demonstrates erasure of societies expectations of nudity being in the private space, too crude for the eye to see. While he explores the freedom of the naked body, his theme of freedoms inspires my other works. Exploring the theme of bringing sex talk into the public without it having to be censored out.
My three final works “Censorship is beeping stupid”,“Let’s talk about sex. SEX SEX SEX “,“Let’s (Not?) Talk About Sex!” were influenced by these artists. My three works displayed a confronting nature about all aspects of censorship in our world. I did experiments to develop my ideas, and I found that all my experiments were relevant to what I wanted to achieve.
My first final work “Censorship is beeping stupid” addresses the idea of censorship in art. A straight forward idea of censorship in our world. I did experiments such as using sand paper to erase private parts, and permanent markers to start to develop my final work. My second work “Let’s talk about sex. SEX SEX SEX” explores the idea of censorship of the topic of sex, wanting to bring it from the private to the public spheres, something that society feels comfortable talking about. I did experiments such as sewing naked people having sex on a pillow and putting it in a public space to reiterate that idea. My final work “Let’s (Not?) Talk About Sex!” conveys a similar idea to my second final work. I literally erased the word Sex, alongside the words Do and Not to convey how it has literally been censored, removed from societies conversations, again something too crude to mention. I did experiments such as cutting out the word sex on a red sheet, an erotic colour to start to convey this idea.
