fayehamblett-art

[fayehamblett-art]

Project Pube images

For my Zine, I decided to shoot a piece produced for a project last year. Project Pube consists of a kimono made from digitally printed fabric, made from images of used wax strips. Similar to the aims of Lady Business, this piece takes an object associated with the abject natural female body and returns it to a sexualised feminine realm, working to confront my viewer with the abject in a feminine way.

I think that including this image in my zine will give the publication more of a fashion magazine aesthetic that I was originally aiming for. I am going to use this image to replace one of my images that have in the book which isn't fitting in with the aesthetic that well (onion pattern). Also, including a piece from last year will finalise how my practice has focused and visually developed on the concept of abject femininity over 2 years. 

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Images from Project Pube 

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Artist Statement

For the last two years my practice has mainly been focused on exploring the link between abjection and femininity. Theoretical research has been crucial in the development of my practice, as the construction of each image has been influenced by Julia Kristeva’s Power of Horror and classic feminist texts relating to gender politics. Through predominantly lens based practice, textiles and sculpture, I have investigated the concept that aspects of the natural female body are deemed socially abject, in comparison to the image representation of women we are presented with persistently, through advertising and social media.

My aim is to constructed images, which constantly tug viewers between feelings of repulsion and allure in order to provoke a sense of abjection. To approach this, I attempt to reconfigure abject aspects relating to the female body to present them in such a way that juxtaposes their true nature or confronts the viewer with abject and banal materials, which represent female anatomy. Through emulating the techniques, strategies and mediums used in advertising, my aim is to deconstruct the consumable image of woman, which saturates society and causes repulsion and self-loathing towards woman’s natural form and composure, which she removes, disguises and keeps hidden from social view.

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Reflection on choices for degree show

The scale and material of my triptych is a highly important factor in the presentation of my work. I want viewers to be repulsed and seduced by the images at the same time to evoke a feeling of abjection – therefore, scale plays a huge part, as it allows the images to grab the viewer’s attention and demand attention from them. Scale is also important because it adds to the shock factor in my work; my work is meant to make a statement about women as social abjects, not sit quietly in a corner. The material adds to this strange sensation, as the high definition matt finish will be similar to the techniques used in advertising, allowing the viewers to feel drawn to each image on account of its material qualities.

I have chosen to have this composition as two natural materials sit either side of the man made material, commenting on the relationship between the natural female body and its representation in imaged-based realties. Furthermore, the idea of each of my images as a construction comments on how the image or representation that we associate women with in society is actually itself constructed. Through creating sculptures that look like the female anatomy using meat and fish, I am commenting both on women’s place as an object of desire and her natural bodies status as socially abject. I think that keeping my material choice hidden from the viewer is crucial to ensure a sense of intrigue about the images, which draws them in. My original title of the triptych was The Three Vulvas, however I am thinking about changing the title to something more witty and crude. I am changing the title to EDIBLE, playing on the links between women’s representation as a consumable image and the use of food to construct the image. This title also implies sexual connotations; although this title implies that all three images are food based, I don’t think that this necessarily matters, as the materials of each sculpture are hidden from the image and therefore irrelevant.  

In addition to the triptych, my zine is an essay about women as socially abject and their constructed image, along with a selection of images chosen complement the text to create a visual essay about the theory behind my practice. I think that as the concepts of my work have been greatly influenced by literature surrounding the topic, that it was important to have a piece that explained and expanded on this to the viewer. I think that this expansion is important due to the obscure nature of abjection theory. The blend of written and visual work combines my practice as both an artist and art historian. Originally the publication was meant to mimic a magazine, however due to the nature of my images and the nature of the text this proved challenging, in addition to my skills on InDesign, this proved difficult. However I think that the zine works well to comment on the social platforms in which women are presented. I think that the zine will also complement my triptych as it gives them details about the theory behind my practice but not detailed enough to give them clues about the nature of the images, allowing them to make their own assumptions.

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Graham Dolphin

Dolphin is British artist known for his mixed media pieces; his piece Everything in Vogue draws together work produced over a period of six years and focuses on concepts of self-identification and idolism. This publication takes all the elements of a fashion magazine content and reworking it to focus on the consumption of representing the objects and images of fashion. This piece also focuses on forms of popular culture, which is central to Dolphins artistic practice. This publication questions the compulsion within the fashion industry to continuously produce imagery with the intent of selling commodities; through using the format and content of a Vogue magazine, the artist deconstructs the industry from within. 

Similarly the written and visual content of my zine aims to ask the viewer to question our thoughts on representations of women within media and how these representations have caused social consciousness to see the woman’s natural body as abject. Although my work follows a slightly different format, I have found the combination of text and images to unfold and expand on the themes of Everything in Vogue influential to my own practice and the production of my publication. 

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Aluminium Print - Dimensions & Display

Dimensions for prints:

80x120CM - 5MM depth

Distance between images: 10CM

Distance between floor and image: 90CM

After displaying a final composition using gloss prints I ordered 3 120X80cm aluminium prints from WhiteWall printing. The images will be printed directly onto Aluminium Dibond panels, coated with a thin layer of white coating, allowing the shin of the metal to come through without losing the detail of image or whites of the image.

Although pricing was an issue with getting these images printed on this material, I didn't want to compromise on scale of the image, as I think that the scale of the constructed images confronts the viewer to produce feelings of abjection towards the imagery. The sleek finish of the material will bring out both the alluring and repulsive qualities of my imagery, whilst emulating the effect of advertising.  

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Examples of book Displays in galleries 

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Zine Display Exhibition Test

I tested displaying my zine on mesh metal grids with bull dog clips for degree show. The images below show how each page would be displayed to ensure that viewers had full access to the images and text with out the risk of people damaging the copies of the publication when on display. 

However since this test, peers and myself have discussed displaying publications together in a select corner of the exhibition, as many of us have made books accompanying our images. I think that this will make the overall exhibition look more professional and cohesive. We have also discussed having mid pages of each publication in box glass frame above the shelf that the publication will be resting on. This would also create a professional space in which viewers could sit and interact with each of our publications, rather than having them scattered round the exhibition. Furthermore this will solidate our practice as both art historians and artists, therefore making our exhibition distinct from pure Fine Art students. 

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Abject Feminine Zine display test 

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Abject Feminine Zine 

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Pretty Period collection 

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Ceramic Tampons

These images will go inside my zine publication which I will be displaying at degree show. However, I also wanted to make the sculptural response to the themes of my practice incase something goes drastically wrong with my aluminium prints; this collection of images and sculptures acts as a contingency plan incase my original aims for degree show fall through. Through dipping tampons into liquid slip and then firing them, I created casts of expanded tampons. After this stage, I spray painted the tampons pink and dripped red and silver solvent based paint onto the tampon. Although I like the finish of the sculptures, I think they would look better if they only had the silver ceramic paint on them. Therefore I have decided to do another batch using only silver solvent paint. 

After this stage I photographed and edited the sculptures; the images aesthetically surpass the real life sculptures. This emulates the themes of my practice, as edited images of women within the media always appear more perfect than real life, therefore women are permanently trying to achieve the unachievable. When I create sculptures for my projects, I never view them as the end product, they are always produced with the intent of existing from the view point of a camera lens and after an editing process, similar to the real female body within advertising. 

My aim with these sculptures was to reinvent a taboo object linking to the female body and transform it into something pretty and delicate whilst still symbolising the menstrual cycle and the abject connections people associate them with. The objects are both alluring and repulsive at the same time; even though they are unused, the glittering solvent pain resembles menstrual blood and reminds the viewer to keep a safe distance. My choice to display them on toilet roll was informed by the idea that the bathroom is the private space where women confront abject aspects of their body. 

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Serano Ham Final Image & close ups 

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Wafer Ham test and Salmon reshoot. 

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The Sculptural Qualities of Ham

Part of my challenge for unit X has been configuring a composition of three complimentary images. Although my original composition of The Three Vulvas worked well to have strong impact, I felt like the image of the ceramic sculpture was the odd image within the composition, in terms of colour an texture. Returning back to the themes of my practice and the link between the natural and the constructed image of femininity, I decided to reshoot the third image with a natural material food material to balance out my compositions, placing two natural materials either side of a manmade material. 

I started by using wafer thin honey roast ham, but the results I was achieving were messy and clumsy due to the thickness and textual qualities. I decided to use Searno Ham; its thinner and easy to sculpt, plus its texture gave a pearly quality to my images. The final Image I produced from this shoot works well in my tryptic as the final natural image within the series. 

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Degree Show: Display, Art & Audience

The work I aim to display for degree show will consist of 2 parts: the main piece will be 3 large scale aluminium prints of The Three Vulvas - I want these hung on a plain white wall, slightly above eye level. These images will emulate advertising posters yet their contact should shock and repulse the viewer. Originally I had planned to have a different tryptic on display, in which Fish Flaps would be central and two fabric compositions would hang either side of it, balancing the abject with the feminine. However, after reviewing this idea I felt that the one image on its own may not translate the full aims of my practice to the viewer, therefore I have decided to display the whole Three Vulvas series instead. 

The second element will consist of a display of the publication I am planning on producing as part of the degree show. The multiple copies of the magazine will be attached to a grid of metal mesh with bulldog clips, open on different pages so that viewers can read the text inside the publication and engage with the text and images without touching the publication and damaging it. As this will take up a lot of room, I am considering having the piece displayed separate from the prints but still in the same area so that you can tell they belong to the same artist and they maintain a dialogue with each other. 

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Andrea Mary Marshall Toxic Women (2012)