The selfie is not real. Its not a tangible object, it is merely something that we as a culture has developed since the birth of the camera phone, which then led to social media being the platform it is today. Some people cringe at the selfie…some people LOVE a good selfie. For me, believe it or not, i’m not a total fan of creating the selfie…but you know when it happens and you feel good about it. Well that feeling is what I am a fan of for sure.
And I’m happy when I am conforming to current beauty standards.
I’m happy if my teeth look nice..
I’m happy if I get lots of likes and comments.
Because even through I’m educated in how the media distorts our image of beauty, I still feel the urge to conform to an impossible body type.
And addressing these issues over the last 12 month journey of self discovery and the selfie has been a bitter tough pill to swallow.
So I’m not here to bash the selfie….you know what I wish for? That more people would take pictures of themselves. That people would collect a bank of themselves and their lives. That having your picture taken is not for vanity, as this belief system is in the place of the idea that only people who think they look good would share a picture of themselves. We need to dismantle the belief that being happy in your skin and who you are is not vanity. Its self-love…its self-care. Fall in love with your life!
Right back to the post..
The selfie is not real…so how could I make it real. How could I create something that was real. This led me onto the Collage.
By deconstructing the images and text found in mass culture magazines, printing the iPhone selfies and then constructing new worlds that do not exist…if you want to see the truth, we need to pull apart the Status Quo.
Art or Forbidden?
This piece organically created itself from my research into the Male Gaze. Predominately artists who are studied and whose work hangs in galleries are male; and it was actually prohibited for the female to paint the female body as a naked form. So we are left with the narrative of the feminine form from the male point of view, this narrative still exists today….which you will see in advertising.
And this narrative is lazy stereotyping. The female used as a subject and object to tell the narrative in which the male wanted to communicate. He is the character, she is the object to help build the story of the character.
This narrative was then placed into two camps. Art or Forbidden. The art was naked women, studied, viewed, appreciated for the artists representation of the female form…and the forbidden? This is mass produced images for a mass audience. Both depict the female form…but you know…one is fine and the other is not.
Its Art darling! (tell me you hear the sarcasm…..??)
Early Morning Exit.
The wording is from a perfume advert. Encouraging, you the female, to be mysterious, alluring…..that you are not a whole, but again a sum of the parts of you. You are simply the smell on his pillow, your scent made you real, like you existed.
I will Cheerlead you down the wrong path…
I am “a fan of man” as the devil, John, said in the film Devils Advocate. Me, I’m a fan of the female, and as I say to all of my friends that ask for advice “if that will make you happy I will cheerlead you on…even if its down the wrong path, you’ve got support & love”
Because us girls have been taught to treat each other as competition for way too long, I will be your biggest fan…..
The Motorway.
Because there was a time when the Motorway was this incredible radical idea. What if one day being a feminist is no longer a radical thought? What if one day its not used as a slur to keep us quiet?
Pls Stop Crying…
Eve ate the apple, I guess its our own fault?
Every night I’m dancing with your ghost.
For my late fiancé….I miss you more than air. Until tonight my darling x
I appear Missing.
Because we are just parts.
“i hate the tops of my arms”
“I had the wrinkles on my forehead…”
“I hate…….”
The Abuse….
The abuse you have given to yourself….the abuse received by another….the utter pain….the idea to heal and forgive is a tough one and only a few can do so. If you are trying just know, I love You x
Mother Mary (unfinished)
And she sits with a halo of all the beautiful forms of the feminine, the human wonderfulness of her will love completely..
Still Relevant?
This lazy storytelling narrative of the feminine says that once you are over the age of 25, you are older now. Invisible, irrelevant. There are times where you are a MILF though…I mean thank the lord i’m still fuckable at 42!!
The internalised misogynism of the younger female buys into this belief system.
My 14 year old daughter will say “God mum….stop with the feminism”
Me…” when you’ve had another 20 years of the bullshite we can talk! until then, I things to say…I have experiences to share. Let me teach you what I wished someone had told me”
Because if you are 22 and not had any life experiences…the patriarchy can challenge her. CHALLENGE ME….challenge this 42 year old woman. Because a woman is not passed it at 25…she has barely bloody begun!
What a Doll.
Domestic abuse.
I’m on the Cover of a Magazine!!
When you isolate the headlines….this is the conversation magazines are having with us.
The collection…..
And now I need to decide how to display these images for my year end exhibition at Chester university…
So I have decided on two Triptychs.
Unfortunately there cannot be a physical show (i will share the information for the online show when it os live), but I will print these for the studio, as I would love to hold in my hands something that started as a selfie….
