cerysjohnson

[cerysjohnson]

For this sketch, I wanted to create a piece surrounding beauty standards and how women are expected to tear themselves apart and put themselves back together to be deemed "beautiful". Things such as plastic surgery, which plant insecurities in women's heads in order to profit off of the self-hatred it brings. Often women are watched by the world and judged in ways men are sometimes not, such as the fat-shaming trends of the early 2000s. Ultimately, it's about the cosmetics and advertising industries ruining the lives of both women and men for profit.

[cerysjohnson]

This is my short film, Running Water. I made this piece as an metaphor for the cycle of depression, conveying this through the contrast in colour grading and the increasingly frequent repeating/"skipping" of clips. Within the film, it begins with wide angles, static shots and cold tones. This style of film represents depression. Later on, however, it moves to high saturation, close ups and erratic camera movement, this represents the attempt at recovery, which ultimately proves false and ineffective. The film shows a girl battling between being happy for those around her and succumbing to her illness, which she does at the end and takes her own life. I wanted this to be an abstract piece, representing mental illness and what happens when people are out of their depth.

[cerysjohnson]

this piece was a recreation of the album cover for live through this by hole, released in 1994. my interpretation of the piece was the disguising of pain with beauty and femininity, hence the pink tint, pageant queen imagery, forced smile and smeared makeup. i wanted this to be a continuation of my expression of female rage and rejection from femininity, a theme and aesthetic i find interesting to capture and explore, through photography and music.

[cerysjohnson]

punk family values (part two)

for this piece, i took the conventional idea of a family portrait and put an alternative twist on it. i dressed my brother and i in alternative clothing, myself in a grunge inspired outfit/makeup and my brother dressed in a style reminiscent of 90s punk rock. i was inspired by the family portrait taken of kurt cobain, courtney love and their daughter, francis bean. i wanted to show a unity between differing alternative subcultures, as shown by familial connections.

[cerysjohnson]

punk family values (part one)

i took these pictures as representation of alternative subcultures and their heavy relation to youth. throughout generations, the artistic expression of young people has been ostracised and deemed controversial/taboo, hence the use of the black and white filter to convey the simplistic and narrow-minded way older generations often view alternative styles and music. i also used the age of the model to show how young some alternative people are in comparison to those that criticise them. ultimately, it’s an ode to the controversy stirred by alternative subcultures.

[cerysjohnson]

i made this collage as a homage to the kinderwhore aesthetic. overall, it’s a representation of corrupted femininity and female rage, often with flowers, tones of pink, white and purple and prom queen/pageant queen imagery, such as the film carrie (1976). for me, it was a reclamation of femininity when one has been rejected from it in the first place, as well as the anger and often bitterness that follows.