First Day of Filming Final Piece.
With the help of my step sister Lorna, i did the first recordings for my final video piece. All the planning i had done before hand and the fact that Lorna listened to instrutions meant that we were able to get things done very smoothly and quickly. The piece’s we recorded (four in total) i feel say everything i wnated them too and more. I am very pleased. The reactions that both myself and Lorna felt towards the video gave me confidence that it will be accepted for the same reasons and get a reaction from all its viewers. I felt somewhat uncomfortable when i first watched it back. It felt like acting when i was being filmed but when i watched it back it looked distressing and painful to me.
Lorna said; ‘This film made me feel sorry for animals that are everyday made to suffer and die for no reason at all. It made it all seem pointless with no cause. I felt anygry at anyone who would want to do this all day and anyone who could ever possibly enjoy this as a job. It was depressing to know that animals like our pets have to go through that amount of distress and suffering only to die at the end of it. I felt sad watching it as was being recorded as i saw first hand how upsetting it can be. The video was very upsetting to me.’
When it comes to showing my videos to the audience i hope that people feel a surge of emotion like my sister and i. This is an important subject and well quite simply you should ask yourself would you want to be tested on and mutilated for the sake of some makeup or bleach!
Drawings for layout of video step by step.
Ideas for Final Degree Show
I now it may be abit early but i can not help myself. I have been thinking about the way i might display many of my works for the degree show and have come up with too many ideas. Now that i have central thread to this project and i now knnow what i am doing for the last few weeks, i can happily say that i have a final five ideas for the layout of my video installation.
The video will be either between or intertwined within the cbues i have made. This will represent my video as a statistic among oter abused animals that are forgotten by most. I want this display, however it turns out, to put across the abuse of trust and the theft of identity against animals that go through testing labratories.
Lightbulb moment: Put up a cage or a sheet of wire mesh on the wall and play the video on top. This may represent the isolation more.
I sobbed while watching this video. It is so sad and makes me feel sick!!!
Stumbled across it while researching. Part of me wishes i didnt but too late now.
I sobbed watching this video. Makes me feel sick!!!!
Brief Reflection of Blog so far.
After looking through my entire blog i felt i could understand what i have done and what i am doing more now than when i started my project. I had noticed while reading that i ahd left many open ended questions in my blog in several posts. I now feel that i can answer some of these questions to an extent.
Do i need my work to feel uncomfortable for it to be seen as art and not craft?
No, i dont think so, because in my eyes it is both. I am using craft and aesthetic beauty to represent something precious that is abused. For my work i am not entirely sure the context changes things too much. The craft object is still just that in my eyes. However i do see it as Fine Art aswell. (That may be a contradiction.) My work does not need to make myself or my audience feel a sense of unease; it just needs to situated in a white cuube envirinment to be seen as art and not craft for my degree.
Does my work have a border territory?
Yes of course it does. I am putting craft and art together in a confrontational environment of questionability and different values in stead of a country market stall.
Can you represent something serious using craft?
I would say you can. I am least trying to do so in my work. Marianne Jorgensen did this with her Tank piece; covering a threatening object of war with a homely knitted blanket. On another note Rosemarie Trockel’s Balaclavas are symbols of war, sex and terror to name but a few. These contexts however, do not hide the fact that a balaclava is and has been a traditional item of clothing knitted by mothers and grandmothers to keep their loved ones warm.
I guess Fine Art works that involve a craft in the making of it can not completely escape the fact that its roots are craft. Serious things can be potrayed by craft materials but i feel the craft can soften and disarm the object or the context behind the artwork. This therefore makes the artwork less threatening and invasive. Now i am wondering whether my craft materials will make my work too soft and fluffy or whether people will see it for the context it holds. I hope that i can still portray what i need to without my work just being seen as a lot of crochet granny squares that should be used for a blanket. I guess it will just depend on my audience and their class, tatse, values and social upbringing. I see my art for the context; craft is just my chosen method of making the art.
