CHARACTER 4: MPDG - MOODBOARD

Portrait by Parker Day 

Makeup: winged eyeliner, over the top 60's eye makeup, wet/shiny/dewy face

Costume: band T-shirt, cigarette in mouth, white leather boots 

Set: record player, fake flowers, Breakfast at Tiffany's poster, lace curtain, velvet, tinsel tassels - mess, just an absolute calamity of objects 

STEPMOTHER / STEPFATHER - ARTHUR PITA

Lately I have been feeling that I am lacking in gallery visits, as I haven't really been to any exhibitions recently - however I realise that the performances I have been to are significantly influential, not only to this project but to me as an artist too.

Arthur Pita's StepMother / StepFather was a performance that, again, I just happened to come across as my friend dances in it and posted about it on Facebook.

(photos taken from: http://www.stepmotherstepfather.com)

Whilst the first act focuses on twisting classical fairytales back into their original, disturbing form of violent cautionary stories; the second act plays more with contemporary references, as the narrative is built around and set to the song 'Country Death Song' by Violent Femmes. The shifts between classic and contemporary, sweet and repulsive, beautiful and alarming are seamlessly pulled off, resulting in a distressingly captivating display of dance theatre. 

I am constantly aiming to achieve this atmosphere within my own work, by creating conflicting emotions within the viewer and stretching out genres to make new ones. 

ARTIST INSPIRATION: SIGNE PIERCE

On Friday 3rd March, I attended the Design For Dance show at CSM put on by the BA Performance Design and  Practice course in collaboration with Central School of Ballet, London Studio Centre and Rambert School of Ballet & Contemporary Dance. The show was very interesting to watch, especially considering my recent inspiration from Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, and encouraged me to think about using our bodies as a form of physical expression.
Following this, I happened to check my Instagram and see that an artist I admire, Signe Pierce, was filming a livestream of a reality art piece. She was riding through the streets of New York in a pink toy Jeep, wearing a small neon pink dress and enacting a character of a rich, privileged girl. She kept saying  to passers by things like 'Excuse me oh my god I am so sorry', 'thank you so much' and 'I am so sorry, I'm just trying to get to my dads house'. From the comments I could understand that she was en route to Trump Tower.
Like Chetwynd, Pierce combines performance and imagery, using photography and film to accompany what she calls her 'reality art'. Through her satirical and colourful approach, Pierce achieves a sense of depth and personality to her pieces whilst also tackling serious subject matter.


I looked at her photography a lot more after this performance, and it has been a recurring inspiration in the shoots I have done so far. Her use of neon, plastics and exaggeration of colours is relatable to a kind of ironic internet art, where we're examining something but also taking part in it, and using it as a platform to grow the thing we are making. To use my work as an example, I shot photographs after filming my piece commenting on the reduction of women in social media to 2 dimensional stereotypes, creating a brand for each type - then I posted some of those photographs on my own Instagram. In a way it's a type of hypocrisy, but it could also be argued that it is the opposite, seeing as I am going against these ideas and actually pointing them out instead of being complicit in them.

I am also interested in the social aspect of making work and watching how people will react to it. Watching this reality piece by Signe Pierce and Ali Smith titled 'AMERICAN REFLEXXX' caused me to realise how far these pieces can go, but also how important it is to let them get that far. I know that my project does not involve too much audience participation, but I think it is an important thing to keep in mind in order to figure out how to keep my ideas growing and moving forward.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

Yesterday (Thursday) was set aside for filming, and the shoot was generally a success. The planning for the set and makeup made organising the scene a very smooth and easy process, and rehearsing the monologue meant I was able to recite it fully without mistakes in the first 15 minutes of filming.
However, when I was reviewing the footage I realised that, in all honesty, I hate the sound of my voice on the film. It's partly come down to being self conscious but also it just doesn't work as well as I had hoped. The film looks like it is taking itself too seriously, where I wanted this to be more of a humorous type of observational piece. My thoughts for alternatives included altering my voice on GarageBand, getting a friend to record a voice over, or including subtitles. The subtitle option seemed to fit best, but iMovie has a limited selection of options for this, so after trying a few different styles, I settled for having the text run across the bottom of the screen.
The audio had to be substituted for something else, and I began thinking of music that would relate my character to the idea of the stereotypical housewife. I remembered something that I had listened to a few years ago, Space Lounge music from the 50's/60's - basically lift music / music for a sophisticated cocktail party, and after failing to find the music I was looking for, I found an instrumental cover of 'The Girl From Ipanema' which worked just as well.
The end result is a strange and cheesy QVC-type video, and I think I will continue to use this format for my other videos.
I sent the video to my sister to hear her opinions, and she thought the video was both funny and tacky - two things I aimed to achieve. She told me that the sound worked really well, but the text moved a little fast along the bottom of the screen, which is necessary to fit it all in. To improve this and make sure the text can be read, she suggested I print it out separately. From this, I started to think about incorporating the text pieces with photographs I took after the video shoot, perhaps layering them digitally and printing the final piece on a large piece of paper to be displayed above the videos.
I have been editing this post over the weekend, so today (Monday) I will be preparing for my next shoot, 'Namaste', which I hope to film tomorrow. To do this I will practice the monologue because, even though I will cut the sound, I think it is important for me to know what I am saying during filming and for it to be relevant to the project. I also created a couple of collages in my sketchbook prior to the 'Goop' shoot, and this helped cement my ideas for the tone of the shoot, so I will aim to get at least one collage done today in the style of 'Namaste'.

CHARACTER 3: NAMASTE - MOODBOARD

Last image by Rachel Maclean - I like this idea of posing almost god-like, in a shrine to themselves 

Makeup: white wig, hair tied on top of head maybe, tan face, pink bridge of nose and under eyes, white liner under eyes, pink forehead, dirty hands, small jewels on face, feathers in hair

Costume: white sheet wrapped around body like a sash/sarong, leaf lights 

Set: in front of TV with image of sky on it, laptops/iPads with same image on, sitting on fake grass, blue/green/yellow lights 

Extra props: softbox, tripod (assistant needed), script written then held by assistant 

CHARACTER 2: KWEEN - MOODBOARD

Last 2 images by Signe Pierce 

Makeup: heavy makeup, contouring, fake lashes, lip liner, over the top glam 

Costume: crop top, skinny jeans or bodycon dress, K necklace (for Kween), slightly blue fingertips

Set: bed, pink silk, plastic rose petals, phones/iPad/iPod/laptop, old and mouldy flowers, fake jewels, cables on bed/intertwined with body, pink/orange/slightly blue lighting 

Extra props: softbox, tripod (assistant needed), script written then held by assistant 

CHARACTER 1: GOOP - MOODBOARD

Last 3 images by Signe Pierce

Makeup: 

Cindy Sherman, overly tanned, orange face, less harsh and more dewy, hair scrunched up with hair grip, white around eyes, exaggerated healthy glow 

Costume: bikini/swimming costume to wear in bath, white hands

Set: Bathtub - kale, avocados, flowers, quinoa, bubble bath floating in it; mess overflowing to side of bath; candles; blue, orange, pink light; glass of wine 

Extra props: softbox, tripod (assistant needed), script written then held by assistant 

UPDATES

Recently I have not felt connected to my ideas, and that I was trying to push too many elements into where they weren't needed.
This week I attempted to paint something that related to the theme of identity, but in all honesty it only made me realise how performance and writing are much more an important part of this project for me, and how painting might not be really relevant at the moment.
What makes this different from the other projects I have worked on is that I am putting a lot of pressure on myself for this one to be the best. In doing so, I forgot what it was that I enjoyed about my past pieces - and that is the enjoyment itself! The notion of taking a theme and having fun with it, creating something that makes people laugh as well as think and not taking every aspect so seriously, are all things I left behind in an attempt to make this work 'better' than the others. In my eyes, a piece of art is not valued solely on how deep and political and intense it can be, but how it can evoke interest and hold it there by being entertaining and fun.
Throwing myself into my work does not necessarily mean I am only emotionally invested in it, it means it in the literal sense too. Physically becoming a part of my work but not making it about me. Building characters and sets and costumes and scripts to create alternate worlds.
I owe a lot of this clarification to the performance artist Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, and the BBC Four documentary I watched about her work and methods.

Chetwynd uses performance, film and costumes to include the audience in her work, and this is something I aim to do. 

My sketchbook has not been used in this past week, as I have been thinking outside of it, and it is difficult to find ways to incorporate it when planning films and performances, as these are things I mostly write about in my notebook. Next week I hope to use it more, to collage and moodboard ideas for upcoming performance shoots. 

I have also been reading a lot this week, and not particularly things that directly link to my theme, but more things that give me inspiration to write myself. I am currently re-reading Miranda July's collection of short stories titled No One Belongs Here More Than You, which has helped me find a more narrative tone in my writing, as well as inspiring me to write two short stories - unrelated to this project but a sort of collateral outcome of the whole thing. Additionally, I began reading The Four Dimensional Human: Ways of Being in the Digital World by Laurence Scott and How To Be Both by Ali Smith. Scott's book is more of a descriptive insight into the fictional worlds we put ourselves in, and what happens when we get there, whereas Smith's book is not about that at all, but what intrigued me was the stream-of-consciousness way it is written. 

I am eager to begin filming my performances and am excited about the final outcomes.