Popular Culture

In this series of photo manipulations, I want to show the obsession we have with popular culture. I slightly altered the facial features without changing the face shape, body or clothes, to give it a disturbing  look. The eyes are widened and the nose and mouth are small, resembling those of manga characters. The  eyes are also widened to show the massive intake of information. We become so obsessed with something,  that we end up becoming or believing we are what we consume. I think this idea works better as a series  than if it was just one image because it emphasizes that it is a mass problem, not an individual one. My aim is  to create even more of these to fill up a whole wall, so that it is almost viral. This will be intimidating for the viewer.

Ambiguity

This is an extract from my dissertation: In the Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, Androgyny denotes ‘‘having characteristics of both genders’’ or ‘‘the merging of male and female attributes’’. It can also be a term used to describe ‘‘women who act like men’’, or ‘‘men who dress like women’’, or someone whose physical features make it unclear whether that person is male or female’’ (Graham, 2003: 12).The word Androgyny originates from the Greek word ‘andr’ meaning man and ‘gyne’ meaning woman, referring to the combination of masculine and feminine characteristics (Progressive Thinking, 2011). 

Androgynous people neither look male nor female. They sit in an ambiguous space, somewhere ‘in between’. In the first photograph, certain facial features that emphasize and separate males from females such as the eyebrows and eyelashes are removed. All brightness from the face is ripped away, giving it a cold, eerie look. The second series consists of two photographs, one with eyes open and one with eyes closed. They are blurred so that the viewer cannot make out the image and use their imagination to complete the image.

Puzzle Portrait

“The human race is like a puzzle: Everyone fits in somewhere, it just takes a while to figure it out” - Jen Leaman. 

I thought it would be interesting to paint a portrait on a blank jigsaw puzzle. Initially, I wanted to remove the pieces after I had finished the painting, but instead I decided to do that using Photoshop. 

The Androgynous figure, is like an incomplete puzzle, the subject neither looks male or female. The psychology behind removing the pieces is to show that ''incompleteness''. It was quite challenging to draw and paint my self-portrait without getting confused from the many puzzle pieces. I tried to focus only on the image and ignore them. The colours also reminded me, for some reason, of the colours in Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. This could be perhaps that I have been studying him for my dissertation. It also reminds me of the Christian byzantine icons, with a more contemporary approach however.

Overall, I like the concept and may work more with it in the future. 

Male Torso

Inspired by the artist Jonathan Yeo, I created an oil painting combining collage. I used my own photograph as reference for the torso and found images from the internet and magazines for the collage. I tried to match up the colours and tones of the collage as closer to the painting as possible.
I want to show that whether we are male or female we are all made up of the same matter. We are a mass of cells, tissues and organs. We all have flesh, and we all bleed.
As the artist Loreen states, ''We are all people, you have flesh, I have flesh, you bleed, I bleed''.

Muscle Anatomy

I tried experimenting with the human anatomy using charcoal and watercolours on canvas. 

I left some parts unfinished on purpose so that the process can be seen. It also allows the eye to wonder. 

It is quite challenging to paint over charcoal with watercolours as it blends with the charcoal, darkening the colour. It requires a lot of layers in order for it to become vibrant. 

I am considering to do a series of body parts on different canvases to resemble a collage.  

Humans and Nature

This drawing is based on a photograph from this photoshoot: http://hebarena.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/light-and-shadow.html
I wanted to try working with charcoal on canvas again, as I had enjoyed it in the past.
I want to show that humans and nature should be closer to each other, hence the subject holding tightly onto the two trees. Nowadays, people have become so obsessed with technology and industrialization, that they have started to forget and ignore the beauty around them.

Unravel

While you are away

My heart comes undone

Slowly unravels

In a ball of yarn

The devil collects it

With a grin

Our love

In a ball of yarn

He'll never return it

So when you come back

We'll have to make new love

He'll never return it

When you come back

We'll have to make new love

While you are away

My heart comes undone

Slowly unravels

In a ball of yarn

The devil collects it

With a grin

Our love, our love, 

In a ball of yarn

He'll never return it

When you come back

We'll have to make new love

He'll never return it

When you come back

We'll have to make new love

He'll never return it

When you come back

We'll have to make new love

A few days ago, I went for dinner with my family at Wagamama Restaurant in St.Albans.

My mother had some jasmine tea and I thought, that it was quite interesting how the flower slowly started to unravel, so I decided to film it. It was so relaxing and pleasing to the eye and soul, I felt like I had found inner peace. I instantly thought of Bjork's song ''Unravel'', which is the music I used in the video. 

The meaning of the song is about the impatience of seeing your loved one again, when your loved one is away, you feel like you are not in love anymore, ''The devil collects it''. In reality, however, you still are. Your loved one will come back and the love will be even stronger than before. Hence the line, ''When you come back, we'll have to make new love''. Sometimes, love falls apart, and it slips away from how you expected it to be. If neither of the two give up and try again, the love can be stronger than ''a ball of yarn''. Unwilling to be broken or stolen from anyone or anything. 

I felt that the music connects to the video because a flower is fragile, just as love is. Love is fragile and can be broken or fixed very easily.