Layered papers

As using the cut images I already had, layered over a subject's face didn't work too well, I wanted to take the person away completely for a bit and just work with the images. I layered these on top of each other and photographed them, trying different combinations.

I find these pieces really interesting, a new face if definitely created but because the features are fragmented and broken it is not a whole face. Although I do find these images strong in their own right, I want to try cutting parts away from them and then using them in front of a subject's face to create a new gendered persona for the subject.

Layered Faces

In these works I have used some of my previous, more fragmented, photographs cut diagonally in front of my subjects' face. I have also experimented with layering a few of these images together.

I find these less successful than had thought they would be. It is a lot more difficult to line up the facial features closely at all. This means that I don't get the same new face created- the image is so broken that it almost doesn't look like a face anymore. I think I should experiment with layering the images more but in different, more effective way.

Fragmented Faces

After looking at John Stezaker's work, and how his work affects part of facial features, rather than always changing the features as a whole, I decided to experiment with this idea in my own work. I used some of my own photos I had taken previously as images to use in front of the face and one photo of the female to male transgender pornstar Buck Angel. I wanted, in that one image, to explore the idea of using a person whose gender identity is already outside of the sociological norm. I think this could be an interesting idea but one I need to consider more thoroughly at a different time.

The other images, that I had created myself, I cut so that they sat either vertically or diagonally across the subject's face, fragmenting their face. I find the photo in which the subject's eyes are distorted and fragmented by the image in front, so that half the eyes showing belong to the subject and half to the image in front, the most interesting in terms of how the viewer would look at it. 

As the eyes are 'broken' and fragmented, and the eyes are what the viewer initially focuses on, it makes the photo actually quite difficult to look at. This is interesting as people who physically deviate from the norm, according to society, are often avoided by the public, who sometimes don't want to look at them. This also links to Garland-Thomson's idea of the 'stare' that disabled people ore often subject to. 
 I want to further fragment the faces of my subjects by using the already very fragmented images in front of them. I want to keep doing this until the image becomes almost like shattered glass.
 The images over the subjects, the 'masks' don't have to be linear, I could marge a few of them crossed over so fragmented sections of the subject's face shows underneath.

Victorian Theatre Masks

I found some reproduction Victorian masks in a flea market in Brighton. They immediately reminded me of one of Joel-Peter Witkin's photographs that I had been considering for my work.

Joel-Peter Witkin, Arms Broken By Windows, 1980

I thought these masks would be very relevant to my work, they are very definitely gendered masks, particularly the ones I bought.  They, like the mask in Witkin's photo, only cover the eyes of the person wearing them. I have taken a few experimental photos of them, using the notion of the person underneath having expressions that match society's impressions of traits of the opposite gender.

But when I took images of these masks in the same setting I had been photographing my other work in I realized that they didn't work as well as I had hoped.

 

The subject, when wearing the masks in my previous works, have their eyes covered. This wasn't an issue in these works as their eyes were covered with other images of eyes but the eyes on the Victorian masks have holes over where the pupils and part of the iris should be. This makes the images I am creating look hollow and empty, as the eyes aren't really there, thus making the images less powerful as artworks. I have, therefore, for the moment, decided not to use these masks in my work, although I may come back to them at a later time.

Olafur Eliasson- Mirrors

Olafur Eliasson is a Danish-Icelandic contemporary installation artist. "Eliasson regularly incorporates elements appropriated from nature in his work. By introducing such phenomena into an unexpected setting, such as a gallery, the artist encourages the viewer to pause and reflect upon their understanding and perception of the physical world around them. Whether he installs a new gallery floor made of volcanic lava or a delicate rainbow into a museum as he has in previous work, Eliasson questions the familiar, the everyday and the divide between nature and culture.
Throughout his career, Eliasson’s installations and interventions have consciously made the viewer central to the work. This is evident in The Weather Project in which a mirror running the length and breadth of the Turbine Hall ceiling allows visitors to see themselves and the immense space around them reflected overhead. At the far end of the Turbine Hall a large yellow arc of light is suspended and reflected in the mirrored ceiling, linking the real space and replicated expanse to create a ‘sun’. Illuminated with mono-frequency lamps the Turbine Hall is transformed into a monochrome landscape. A fine mist permeates the space in different densities and forms patterns throughout the day." (Tate Press Release)
Eliasson's work explores ideas about perception, expirience and representation. One material that he uses often in his work, and is most relevant to my own work, is the mirror. It "...functions as a device to layer spatial dimensions and expand upon the parameters of fixed rooms." (http://www.suite101.com/content/exhibition-by-olafur-eliasson-at-berlins-martin-gropius-bau-a253863)

Eliasson's use of mirror's questions the preconceived spatial perceptions of the viewer by changing what they are able to see. The mirrors, such as in the images of works above, change how big the room looks by reflecting it in a mirror on the ceiling, and thus forces the viewer to consider if what they are seeing is real.
My use of mirrors in my work is not so much about spacial perceptions but about personal ones. I want the use of mirrors in my work to force the viewer to question their preconceived ideas about themselves, by reflecting their own face, and altering it with a layered image, I wish for the viewer to think about their gender identity.

John Stezaker - Collaged Faces

Whitechapel Gallery -  29 January - 18 March 2011    Gallery 1

John Stezaker is a British artist working with "...classic movie stills, vintage postcards and book illustrations, Stezaker makes collages to give old images a new meaning.By adjusting, inverting and slicing separate pictures together to create unique new works of art, Stezaker explores the subversive force of found images. Stezaker’s famous Mask series fuses the profiles of glamorous sitters with caves, hamlets, or waterfalls, making for images of eerie beauty.

His ‘Dark Star’ series turns publicity portraits into cut-out silhouettes, creating an ambiguous presence in the place of the absent celebrity. Stezaker’s way of giving old images a new context reaches its height in the found images of his Third Person Archive: the artist has removed delicate, haunting figures from the margins of obsolete travel illustrations. Presented as images on their own, they now take the centre stage of our attention

This first major exhibition of John Stezaker offers a chance to see work by an artist whose subject is the power in the act of looking itself. With over 90 works from the 1970s to today, the artist reveals the subversive force of images, reflecting on how visual language can create new meaning."  (Whitechapel Gallery Press Release)

Stezaker's facial collages are similar to my 'photographic collages' as they are combining facial identities from at least two people to create a new face and a new identity. The difference to my works is that my images aren't traditional collages, they are 'photographic collages', they haven't been physically altered after the photo has been taken. They other difference is that in my work I change either the eyes, nose or mouth but as a whole; Stezaker changes parts of these features, like one eye, part of the mouth, half the nose etc. This makes the face less recognizable as a whole entity, it is more disjointed and fragmented than the faces in my work.I could perhaps experiment with maybe using parts of a face vertically rather than horizontally and see how this works for creating a new gendered identity.

Bill Viola - Emotional Expressions

Bill Viola is a video artist who considers "...forms of expressing basic human emotional states". He uses actors and actresses to portray these emotions in a raw, uninhibited way. His works generally appear in front of a plain black background, so all the viewer can focus on is the subject.

                                                                 Quintet of the Unseen, 2000

                                                                Observance, 2002
Viola's use of  expression is paramount to his work. He uses emotional facial expressions to, inevitably, evoke reactions from the viewers. His videos tend to be slowed, so that each tiny change in the subject's face or body is noticed by the viewer, as each change, however small, when time is slowed becomes a large change.
Viola's works tend to start off calm and still, particularly in Quintet of the Unseen, 2000. The emotions of the subjects grows until they consume the artwork. The expressions are uninhibited and, although the subjects are actors, and therefore the expressions are being acted, they look real and not forced, so that it seems as thought the viewer is experiencing fresh, pure emotion.
I want the faces in my work, the subject's faces that are hidden behind the mask, to have an emotional expression relevant to the sociologically formed expectation of the role of the opposite gender. For example, If the subject was to be female, then I would want them to have an emotional expression linked to sociologically formed masculinity; a powerful, aggressive, dominant expression.
I wouldn't want the expressions and emotions to be as prominent in my work as they are in Viola's, as they are just part of the work whereas in Viola's videos, they are a very large part of the work. I do think, however, that expression is relevant to my current photographic work.

Backlog

Gender identities and gender roles are not the same. Gender roles are produced by society, gender identities are psychological.
How can I utilize the ideas of gender roles and identities are separate parts of personalities? Perhaps the image at the front could be the gender role, a mask dictated by society, and the gender identity could be the person behind the mask, the true, psychological gendered (or non-gendered) self.
So why are the genders on the masks the opposite gender? Surely society states that we should act like the gender we are? But my work is about gender identities, including transgender. I am trying to present these trangender people, who hidden behind a gendered body, have to create or live with a fractured identity, the body of one gender and the mind of the other, or no gender at all.
What do these images mean for the rest of the population? People, like me, who have a definite gendered identity? Well, I want it to be making the viewer question this.
So what are the points of the expressions of the faces in my work? Well, me and women have traditional gender roles, men needing to be masculine according to society by being powerful, dominating, aggressive, authoritative and controlling. Women are, according to society, supposed to be feminine by being weak, submissive, passive and powerless.
I should utilise these gender roles in my work by using expressions that fit these characteristics, but by mixing and matching them, so the gender roles and gender identities become ambiguous.

So what is the relevance of the clothes and background in these works? Well the clothes obviously tend to dictate or imply a gender, if you see a person in a dress, you tend to think of them as female. Should the clothes match the gender of the mask? I suppose clothes can be seen to be used as a mask or a protector. So perhaps I could experiment with using the gender of the 'mask' for the gender of the clothes.
As for the background, I have picked a plain white background up until now, so the focus is on the 'collaged subject' but I may experiment with different backgrounds. I could use some of the images I have already taken and place all of them on the wall behind so the image becomes more fragmented and more layered. I could also experiment with he size of these images.
In Joel-Peter Witkin's work, he often uses painted/printed large images as the backdrop, often it looks as if there is a much larger room behind the subject when in fact all there is is an image. Some of these backdrops reference art history. I could perhaps use images that reference art history. I could perhaps use images that reference something relevant to do with gender identity or societies' gender roles. I don't want anything that will detract from the subject too much. Bill Viola, for example, uses a completely black background which means that all there is to focus on is the subject.
I think I should experiment with these different ideas for background to see what works best.

Backlog

I have been thinking about the viewer in relation to my work. I want to experiment with making the viewer more involved with the work and via the work, making them more aware of their own gender identity. I think the most effective and instant way to do this is to show the viewer with an altered gender. I am going to try using a mirror with the 'masks' I have been photographing stuck onto it so that when the viewer look in the mirror, they see their face with an altered gender identity.

Backlog - London Gallery Visit 28.02.11

My first gallery in this visit was the Blain Southern Gallery. They were screening a video by Bill Viola The Quintet of the Unseen.

 This video presents 5 people who all begin with very calm, emotionless expressions, which slowly erupt into different powerful emotions, then calm down to end as they begun. The video is greatly slowed down so that, in all it lasts around 15 minutes, when the actual shoot would have only been a couple of minute long, at that. This has made me think about the use of expressions in my work - and I will explore Viola's work further.

The next gallery was Paradise Row, exhibiting the photographic work of Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin in People in Trouble Laughing Pushed to the Ground. These were all black and white photos, all the same size, lined up against a wall, apart from three larger ones. The smaller were all printed on paper with a white circular outline.

 

The images were all in clear, thin plastic boxes that essentially created a frame but without a frame. So they're in a glass display box but it is almost flat. The images, as they are all in a line, are so similar from afar but as you get closer it becomes clear that they are all so different.

The circular outline of the smaller pieces, makes you want to know what is happening outside of the frame, all these images have the same shape to adhere to yet they are all so different that they make the shape different each time. How can I use this in my work - the idea of framing but without a frame? Placing the image behind glass for an almost formalization but without a frame to distract from the work itself.

Backlog - London Gallery Visit 26.02.11

My aim for this visit is not only to see artist's works relevant to mine in both their execution and their theory, by also to see how they present their photographic work.

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In London I visited Louise Bourgeois and Tracey Emin's joint exhibition at Hauser and Wirth Do Not Abandon Me.

These works showed contrast between gender - a feminine, curvy, pregnant body set apart from a male block like body with an erect penis. These works are about sexuality, identity and the idea of loss or abandonment. The images were presented in plain frames that don't distract from the image themselves.

Backlog

Gender identity is not dependent on biological but on psychological and sociological genders.
So really, the biological side of gender, 'sex', is less important to my work than the sociological and psychological side of gender- gender identity.
My work is not really about biology - although it is a contributing factor - it is a lot more about society and psychology and how gender is affected by them and how transgenderism affects them.


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I believe that there are so many people whose identities can be hugely defined by their genders: people such as those who greatly adhere to gender stereotypes. Although people, such as myself, aren't necessarily archetypes of gender stereotypes - gender is still an important part of our identities. What I want my work to do is help the viewer realise how transexuality has caused gender to become invalid as an identity definer. I was the viewer to think about what gender is in terms of identity. What are the differences between genders and do they really exist anymore now that there are people who are genderless, both genders or have changed from one to the other?

Backlog

I have been continuing to create these 'collaged photos' but layering them even further to create and even more collaged photo. I used the first lot of images to be held over another person's face.

.I find these photographs successful as they do create a whole new character and a whole new gender. The idea of a new character being created is reminiscent of when a transexual changes 'gender'. They essentially create a new persona for themselves, choosing a new gendered name, choosing a new way to dress and potentially a new way to behave.
Changing gender is, in many ways, changing identity.
According to Joan Rough-Garden in the book Evolutions Rainbow: Diversity, Gender and Sexuality in Nature and People, biologically, sex is defined by the size of gametes, sperm and eggs, and thesefore by what produces them, testicles or ovaries.
So if a person produces sperm then they are male and if they produce eggs then they are female. What problems does this biological standpoint raise for transexuals?
Well, even if they were to remove the organs producing either egg or sperm- they still can't produce the other so, biologically, according to this theory, they can never truly be the gender they are aspiring to be.
There is a new, different gender, that produces neither sperm nor egg. It could be said that transgender people are, in fact, genderless, or that they are one, of an impossible number of new genders.
This notion links to my current work as, although our minds, as viewers, merge the photo being held up, to the face underneath, as our minds like to recognize and view whole faces, the photos held can never truly be part of the person underneath. This is like how a transgender person, biologically, can never truly be part of the opposite gender.

Backlog

What I am essentially trying to create are 'transexual artworks' that, like the 'transexual objects' I previously created, force the viewer to question their preconceived ideas regarding gender. The objects were intended to challenge perceptions of gender stereotypes by combining clothes associated with specific genders with the genitals of the other.
The photos I have been producing are combining facial parts of different genders and identities.

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In Joel-Peter Witkin's work, he not only uses these printed papers in front of the face, but makes them into a mask - this is evident in Woman on a Table (1987)

These masks are not only obscuring the subject's face - or part of the subject's face - and identity, but is also adding and creating a new identity through the image on the mask.
I want to obscure my subject's face but also create a new gender through the 'mask' having an image of the opposite gender.

In Witkin's work The Eggs of my Amnesia (1996)

the faces of the two subjects are covered by such masks. From the top half they look to be a man and a woman yet as your eyes scan down the page it become clear that the woman has a penis.
The lines between genders become so blurred and the viewer's expectations become distorted.

Backlog

In these photographic 'collages'

I have created a new character or identity. The fragmentation is part of the subject rather than the artwork itself.
When covering different parts of the face, different identities are implied. It seems that covering the eyes with new eyes creates a new identity altogether, whereas covering the mouth with a new mouth creates a different emotion - a new character is there but it retains most of the person underneath.

Backlog

After photocopying the collages, they look the same but are now flat- they have become smooth, whole images. The distorted characters have become almost real.
I have been experimenting with the size and scale of these photocopies also, enlarging them to various sizes and placing them on larger white surfaces.
I find these pieces really interesting and want to further this idea by varying my source of images.

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Looking at the work of photographer Joel-Peter Witkin, specifically Arms broken by windows, (1980)

in which Witkin used images of parts of the face to cover the same parts of his models face thus creating a new identity. I wish to work with this idea, but in terms of gender, creating a new, differently gendered identity. It would be almost a photographic.

Backlog

These are all my past reflective journal entries.  I don't have the dates for all of them so will just put them in a few dateless posts.
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The end of Final Major Project 1 saw me creating 'transexual object'. Objects in which clothing, associated with one gender, was team with genitals of the other gender.
These objects were based on the notion of transexuality and how it puts individual's sexual and gender identity into question. Transexuality is a threat to culturally conceived ideals of gender. The gender lines have become blurred and even dissolved.
I have continued with the idea of producing work about transgenderism and its effect on the gender and society. Rather than produce 'transexual objects', I have begun to create transexual collages. These have been created using black and white images of models, mostly underwear models models- both male and female. I have mixed  and matched different features from each to create a hybrid- a new transexual character. This is a big difference from my precious work - in which I avoided using whole people.
I have used images of models so far as they are representations of gender bodily perfection- according to contemporary society
 By creating an 'abnormal' looking body that deviates from the 'norm'- using these models- I want to contrast the bodily archetypes with transgenderism, which could be seen as outside the norm.
The images are all black and white as it allows for colour to not become an issue when merging these images.
I think an important part of  these collages is fragmentation. The original models and their genders are fragmented, their bodies and identities cut and moved about to create a new person with a new, possibly indistinguishable, gender.