As women in our patriarchal society, we are hyper-aware of our bodies being judged primarily as objects of beauty and disgust. As if separate from our minds and humanity, our physical being is under constant observation and scrutiny; underappreciated and overexposed.
Our base inspiration for our project came from this original piece. We loved the grotesque texture and veiny appearance and wanted to replicate similar effects in our final project. To create our base piece, we knew we would be using papier-mâché as our primary material. Through a variety of material studies, we wanted to test which material would create the most structurally sound cast and also build that grotesque texture we were after. We ultimately decided on using paper towels that we then ripped up and soaked in Mod Podge.
After building up our base cast and texture, we moved on to our next material manipulation…burning. We played with two different techniques for burning, which were using a single flame versus a torch. Though a torch proved much more efficient, we ultimately decided against it because it created a too uniform burn that didn’t communicate the uniqueness we wanted each piece to have. We also learned in our studies that our use of Mod Podge in the casts affected how it burned. The more saturated the base was, the more we were able to control the burn, so we took this bit of information and applied it to our final.
After we explored the physical material, we finalized which shapes held both unity and correct translation for what the piece stands for. When exploring these ideas, we pulled from beauty standards that have an emphasis on angular shapes seen in eyeliner and undergarments. After multiple alterations in each piece, we concluded that this overview contained the strongest connection and visual representation of form for our concept.
After confirming the correct shapes and texture, we moved forward with completing the final design. The pieces needed to be exact to our bodies by going with the flow of the female form to emphasize both the personal experience and the overview that no matter what body type you have as a woman, you are oversexualized regardless. We spent hours layering 6 coats of paper towel, soaked in a glossy Mod Podge, making the structure as strong as possible while still maintaining post creation flexibility to our body.
The pieces are burned intentionally, showing torn and veiny material, emphasizing the abstract structure and texture. We strategically burned areas of the piece to create variation in appearance and depth of texture. The final coat of a yellowed resin ties together the grotesque effect, leaving the viewer to feel more and wonder how such a texture was created. After finishing our pieces, we sewed Velcro to our clothes and glued the other side to the pieces so they would sit securely and form to our bodies.
Our goal was to invoke the icky feeling of what it feels like as a woman to know you have eyes on you. We successfully did this through careful consideration of materials used, techniques, and placement of burns and resin.
