Juliet

Juliet's slippers and birkenstocks.

Repeat patterns based on shoe drawings

Audrey Critchley

I like the use of screen printed imagery, text and patchwork in this piece by Audrey Critchley, whose work I saw at Alexandra Palace. The images are line drawings based on her own photographs and then transferred onto the fabric by screen printing.

Stitched portraits of Sarah

Sarah and her shoes

In response to the exam question on gender and my research into the named artists I have decided to explore ideas of feminism and female identify among a group of women who are in a book club with me. We have recently read and discussed How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran which initiated debate and discussion on what it means to each of us to be a feminist. To start the project I visited and photographed two of my friends and inspired by a chapter in Moran's book, I photographed the shoes which they wear. 

Here I have created a print design based on Sarah's shoes. The shoes represent practical aspects of Sarah's life, such as keeping fit, cycling to work and keeping her feet warm at home. The design is meant to look pretty and girly in contrast to the practical and well worn shoes.

Artist Research

Mona Hatoum is a Palestinian artist whose  pieces are concerned with confrontational themes such as violence, oppression and voyeurism, often in reference to the human body. Conflict arises from the juxtaposition of opposites such as beauty and horror, desire and revulsion. Until 1988 Hatoum worked mainly with video and performance, but since 1989 she has concentrated on making installations. She has created a number of works using metal grids which allude to physical violence and imprisonment, notably Light Sentence .She has also explored these themes in a number of smaller sculptures based on items of furniture and household appliances such as the piece shown here. 

 Jenny Saville's feminism lies in a clear-eyed and unromantic view of the average female form. On a trip to America she visited the malls where 'you saw lots of big women. Big white flesh in shorts and T-shirts,' she has said, all of whom 'had the physicality that I was interested in'. Living in New York in 1994, she spent hours observing the work of a plastic surgeon named Dr Weintraub whose interventional techniques not only influenced her anatomical understanding of excessive human fat, but fuelled her interest in the extremes of bodily shape and, in some cases, deformity.

Artemisia Gentileschi born in Italy in 1593 was the daughter of well-known Roman artist, Orazio Gentileschi. She was one of the first women artists to achieve recognition in the male-dominated world of post-Renaissance art. In an era when female artists were limited to portrait painting and imitative poses, she was the first woman to paint major historical and religious scenarios.

Cindy Sherman does not consider her work feminist, however many of her photo-series, like the 1981 Centerfolds, call attention to the stereotyping of women in films, television and magazines. Sherman works in series, typically photographing herself in a range of costumes. To create her photographs, Sherman shoots alone in her studio, assuming multiple roles as author, director, make-up artist, hairstylist, wardrobe mistress and, of course, model.

In her landmark 69 photograph series, the Complete Untitled Film Stills, Sherman appeared as B movie style actresses in all of the shots.

Nan Goldin addresses issues of gender (one of her themes is the pressure on men to behave like men, and where that leaves women).Her work is most often presented in the form of a slideshow, her most famous being a 45 minute show in which 800 pictures were displayed. The main themes of her early pictures are love, gender, domesticity, and sexuality; her photographs are usually shot with available light. She has affectionately documented women looking in mirrors, girls in bathrooms and barrooms, drag queens, sexual acts, and the culture of obsession and dependency. The images are viewed like a private journal made public.

Judy Chicago is an American feminist artist and writer known for her large collaborative art instillations pieces that examine the role of women in history and culture. She coined the term "feminist art" in 1970’s and founded the first feminist art program in the United States. In her famous piece of work The Dinner Party she explores Women’s history. The sculptural piece consisted of a large triangle, which measured 48-feet by 43-feet by 36-feet, consisting of 39 place settings. Each place setting would commemorate a historical female figure, such as artists, goddesses, activists and martyrs. The project came into fruition with the assistance of over 400 people, mainly women, who volunteered to assist in needlework, creating sculptures and other aspects of the process.

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/home.php

AS Exam 2012

20. Issues of genre are a major concern in the work of many artists such as Artemisia Gentileschi, Jenny Saville, Mona Hatoum, Judy Chicago, Cindy Sherman and Nan Goldin. 

Make several practical studies which explore this theme. You should include a written commentary of your influences and techniques

Evaluation of Coursework

I have explored hand stitch, machine stitch, dying printing and felt making within my coursework. Within each project drawing and observation were important as starting points. I used easily accessible objects such as flowers in my garden and a collection of shells that I had and then my own portrait as my starting points. In all the projects I used simples materials, plain calico and cottons, coloured threads, cream and some coloured fleeces. I enjoyed the process of transforming simple materials by adding colour and pattern and then using these fabrics to create objects and images. I have filled my sketchbooks with drawings and samples and used my blog to present photographic evidence of my progress as well as artist reference for each project. It has been useful part of the process to photograph and present my work digitally as it always gives me an opportunity to look more objectively at the piece and evaluate it's success. I have had the opportunity to visit a range of exhibitions and textile events this year and these have all contributed to my understanding of the subject. All these experiences are referred to on my blog.
I enjoyed all the processes that I worked with and found dying and printing the most challenging, but possibly the most exciting process. I would like to combine a variety of skills and techniques within my exam project.

Self Portraiture

This portrait is influenced by the work of Bernie Leahey and focuses on facial expression, wrinkles and lines. This is my favourite piece within this project because I think that it is more fluid and expressive than my previous piece.

This is the back of the above portrait, I flipped it on Photoshop so that it is the same way around as the front, shown above. The quality of line is less detailed and the fabric is distracting.