Androgyny Photoshoot

In this photoshoot, I tried to turn myself into an Androgynous man. I was assisted by Stefania Papayianni, who helped me with the make-up and photos.We tried to place heavy emphasis on the cheekbones, lips and eyebrows. I have noticed that most Androgynous male models have refined cheekbones, thick lips and eyebrows, which give them that feminine, yet ambiguous look. I was inspired by various Androgynous male models including Andrei Pejic, Martin Cohn, and Michael Tintuic. I was also inspired by the series ''I AM MAN'' by artist Amanda Morgan, who used her body as a canvas to portray the male figure. The difference between our work though is that she tried to turn herself into a man, while I tried to turn myself into an Androgynous man, which is more challenging because you have to be masculine while being feminine at the same time. I wanted the viewer to question whether I am male or female. It was one of the most challenging photoshoots I ever undertook and required a lot of trial and error to create that certain mysterious look and expression that androgynous people have. I noticed that only some angles of my face looked androgynous. The reason why I wanted to try out this shoot is because I always had an obssession with ambiguity and genderless beauty, and I wanted to see if I could reflect that interest onto myself.

Portrait of Sol

I wanted to create a painting inspired by one of the photographs I took of my ball jointed doll. I used the photograph mainly as reference and my own vision for the rest. I tried to combine elements of realism while still incorporating the ''doll'' look, giving him a human expression with exaggerated characteristics. His face looks more three dimensional, while his hair is more ''wig like''. My aim was to make the viewer question whether he is real or fake. I am also interested in androgyny, so I also tried to make him look neither too masculine or feminine, something in between. This time I also tried to pay more attention to colour and detail, trying to create contrasting light and dark tones.



    ---> Painting details

 

Bjd Photoshoot

Recently I purchased a new bjd (ball-jointed doll). He is a Ringdoll Sol. I was looking for something more realistic than my previous doll, one with more detail on the body and with more realistic features. My previous doll had a more manga/anime-like appearance and more exaggerated features than this one. I believe that he is perfect for my next project. I attempted to take some photographs of him. I tried to capture his expression and pose him in ways that make him look human. I want to play with the idea of real and fake, fantasy and reality, beauty, fetishism and ambiguity.

 

'Timeline' Exhibition

I had a group exhibition with Eftichia Ioannou, Stefania Papayianni, Juhi Teli and Maria Charalambous at the Ramada Hotel this Sunday-Monday entitled 'Timeline'. The main event was an interactive installation where we had six wooden poles, surrounded with screws on all three sides. We invited people to 'map their own journey' using a piece of thread, as long as they wanted it to be, to express how far they have travelled and how many stops they have made.We allowed them to choose from five different coloured threads, depending on how they arrived at the hotel. Each thread represents a way of transport. e.g. The red coloured thread represents a bus, the blue represents a train and so on. It was a very successful exhibition and more people came than we had initially expected. 

In addition to the installation, we also made some stop-motion animations. This is a collaborative stop-motion animation I did with Eftichia Ioannou that we also presented at the exhibition. I started it alone and then she involved herself too. I took a photograph of every little movement she did then edited everything in windows movie maker.

Here is another stop-motion animation that I made with Stefania Papayianni after the first one. She had the idea and I incorporated some of my ideas in it as well. I used a fan to make the threads move around while Stefania took the photos. I suggested we put an extract from the song '9 Crimes' by Damien Rice, to add to the atmosphere and rhythm of the animation. We finally decided to present the first one because it was more playful and gives positive energy, which we needed because our exhibition was a social one.

Self-Portrait

This is a self-portrait based on one of the photographs from ''The Flower Dress'' photoshoot with Stefania Papayianni-->http://hebarena.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/flower-dress.html I like the fact that the painting isn't centered and space is given for the painting to breathe. Initially, I was going to put detail on the background, but then I decided to make it plain, so more emphasis is put on the face. It took me around 6-7 hours to complete.

-->Face details

--Face details

Portrait of Melissa 3

This is the third painting based on Melissa's 'Bring a Cartoon Character to Life' series, which are inspired by Roy Lichtenstein and Japanese anime/manga. This is when she was completely painted and is wearing a wig in contrast to the others where she were still in the preparatory stage. I particularly like the way the eyes and hair turned out. I usually don't put so much detail on hair when using oil paints, but I think that they turned out better in this painting. The eyes also look more 'real'. I also like the contrast between the flat dots and ''3-dimensional'' skin. It took me around 7-8 hours to complete.

-->Painting details

Collaborative Photoshoot with Melissa

Yesterday, I went out with my good friend Melissa and had a photoshoot at Hatfield Old Town. We also took some photographs in our studio space beforehand. I had the idea of wanting to photograph myself with white hair for a long time. I mainly just wanted simple portraits but then after I told Melissa about it, she suggested we try to do something collaboratively and that the theme of black and white would be interesting. She dressed up in black clothing and I in white. We were influenced by Japanese anime and manga, ball-jointed dolls and fashion. I noticed that working collaboratively with other people can give rise to many interesting ideas and results. It was a very fun, playful and exciting photoshoot.