DOLL : REVISITED

Digital work

I decided to revisit some photos of a model I made in my foundation year, as I felt that they were still relevant to my practise and could be further developed. I am planning on using these manipulated photo's as reference for a painting on the subject.

 

FUCK YOU.

A spontaneous reaction to frustration at my art work, in drawing form.

A2 watercolour paper and permanent marker.

Details from Fuck You

 I then attempted to translate this spontaneous drawing into a more static painting, which I thought was interesting, but does not have the same impact as the original drawing.

Acrylic on scrap wood 2m X 50cm

THE CREATURE TRIO

An experiment in line drawing and screen printing.

3 X A4 sheets, featuring the original drawing, a screen printed drawing and an embelished original.

 

THE CAROUSEL

Sound Piece - The Wardrobe Project by ZAN

Video - The Carousel by ZAN

mixed media

ART FLOWS THROUGH MY BODY

For this performance piece I pushed cannulas through the skin on my arm and my upper chest, then hooked them up to saline bags filled with paint, so that the paint flowed through the cannula, also passing through a small part of my body.

 This process was an allegory of sorts, a representation of how art and inspiration for art flows through my body. When the paint spews out of my body, sometimes it misses the canvas (my dress) and is wasted.

 However I can direct the paint to a canvas and create visible marks with it, the art instead flows through my body, collecting heat and direction and becomes a physical manifestation, whether it be a painting, sculpture, performance or other intervention.

This is how I view my art, falling towards me in the form of inspirations and ideas, then passing through me, to either be channelled into my work or to spew on the floor, into nothingness and to be wasted.

'You left a mark' (2011)

Progression of 'You left a mark.' (2011)

This piece began as an attempt to present deviant and sexual activites, in a soft, unusual way - through the craft of cross stitch, a medium usually preserved for teddies and samplers of flowers and kittens. By presenting the kinky, sexual material in this way, I wasted to express the banality and normailty of such subjects to myself and also present matter which some people may find offensive and abrasive, in a more subtle and less distasteful matter.

The first incarnation of this piece was presented reverse side up as I enjoyed the aesthetic qualities of this side and the way that I had unconciously created patterns and pictures in the reverse, which were not present on the correct side.
I framed this picture in a traditional fashion, but used PVC from old pieces of clothing that I had worn during kinky play.

I viewed the making of this piece almost as a performance in itself, as it was a long and labour intensive process, it began as a labour of love, but as I finnished stitching this piece, so did the relashionship I had with the man pictured, and it became increasingly difficult to finnish the piece. As our relationship in real life had ended, this piece did not feel finnished, I had a desire to hurt and destroy this labour of love.

So I did.

I decided to combine the destruction of this piece with an earlier idea I had formed for a performance. I decided to lay the piece on my naked body and to have wax poured over us, simultaneously covering me and the work in wax, slowly and painfully obscuring both.
Wax play is one of many areas of 'kinky play' that I have interest in, the effect of the hot wax as it cools on the skin produces a beautiful aesthetic effect, it could be argued that this effect could have been achieved in paint, however the pain/pleasure element became an important part of the performance/video.

During the performance I viewed the pain as a form of purification, a task to be endured, a release from the emotional pain of the end of a relationship and the destruction of a work which I had spent many hours of loving work on. As the work had become symbolic of my relationship, the pain became symbolic of letting go of my work, whilst suffering with it and being part of its destruction.
A photo of the result of the performance