this is the final piece i made for my project i was happy with the outcome, it was larger than others i had done but i wanted to be this way. i wanted this distorted look about it and that it wasnt perfect in look, i am not so why should it be.

trying out areas

trying out different markings on leg, feet, arm, hand side of torso. i think i use the torso arm and leg having them all or the torso and leg joined

position

i have decided as my final piece to make a large collection of photos as i have been playing about with. i am working on the areas of the bodyto see which will be used.
here was figuring out where markings would be. i had began thinkin on the back but that proved too hard so i decided the side. i was trying to get a crease in the skin at the side aswell as i thought this would distort the figure in the photos

looking at skin

I decided i wanted to take the marks off my skin and at the same time collect the markins of the skin. It was a good way to look at different movements of the body and capturing them in something solid, as for my final piece i will need to look at the placement of different parts of the body.

hand marks

In these photos i was trying different markings on the the hand...here i rolled ink along the skin on a pen. I like the tire like markings

ink markings

foot

I tried a larger photo collage of my foot with the lines along the top, i used black and white with a touch of colour at the heel

some playing around

just playing around with some photos. /\ above - using both colour and black and white. like the variation.

Been looking at the way i lay out photos,found it an interesting way to build up images. It gives a fractured look to the body, it shows the confusion and frustration that can be felt when dealing with ones appearance.




I started marking myself, looking back to the measuring i thought of a ruler.puting it straight onto the skin it feels more personal. it makes me feel of the burden we make ourselves carry, having to measure up to targets sometimes out of reach we give ourselves.



I love the creases in the skin i find it makes the photographs more interesting and shows the way skin can change and react to movement.



This is an attempt at grouping photographs together i think it went well

The Boyle Family

skin series cytogram
right hand study

Looked at some Boyle family skin series, focusing on the skin very closely. i love the markings of the skin up close

showing my lines

The Word Scrutiny kept running round my head so i started tracing the lines on my hand. Im starting to use text, symbols, drawing on the skin. If feels its more personal written straight onto the skin.

diameter

Tried writing some symbols on the skin. this one is the sign for diameter. i think i like using lines better its works well with the large photo pieces

Joseph McKenzie - Witness to mortality

Remember man that thou art dust...and unto you shall return!Ash Wednesday. 1990

Looked at this guy - Joseph McKenzie. Liked the use of a symbol on the skin, thought it was an interesting idea.

measuring to my hearts content

These are more photos of measuring parts of my body, using postit's to write down the measurements. I liked this way of leaving the information on the body, im going to try and write the text onto the skin . The one photo i seem to be drawn to is the one just of the postit on its own. i seem to be drawn to text so much, i worry im using it too much.

It has been described i am scrutinising skin, i like this description.







measuring photos

measure to your hearts content

I became interesed in measuring after finding an old black and white photograph in a book of a man with a measuring tape against his head, the portrait was done by Alphonse Bertillion in 1890, for what reason unknown . But i liked that exactness and again using the body, so i began measuring my own body. There is somthing in the back of my mind that makes me think of medicine when i look at these, i am drawn to the one of my hand, maybe because of the small area with the large measuring tape along it making it even smaller, dainty almost. These are some of the first photos i had taken, using the same idea as the photograph i had seen.

Alphonse Bertillon

circa 1890

This is a photograph by Alphonse Bertillon. He was a policeman in France who introduced the the identification of criminals based on physical measurements, head body markings, ie. scars, tatoos, personal characteristics. This is called anthropometry.

It was later replaced by finger printing.

I found this photograph interesting. I liked the exactness of measuring all of the body, this clinical and pratical way of dealing with the human form.

Faces

Havent posted in a while so im gonna do catch up.

These photos were taken after thinking about facial expressions. I was just trying something out here, maybe it was more about how i felt at this time, my moods swinging from fine to anger and frustration. I dont know if this will go anywhere, there is other things im looking at but it could be something to possibly think about as an exercise for me to do.

This is something i done after looking at the artist Marina abramovic....at this point i was still thinking about skin and marking. reason for the rope...but i realised it was more about the facial expressions now after doing this, it was a feeling of frustration i felt at this point or wanted to convey...pullng the ropes but never seeming to get anywhere. in it you can only see my gritted teeth, not the entire face...maybe i should try just showing the face but not the action for example holding something heavy or being shown something that you react to in some way, i dont know! im just thinking out loud! i only put one up because i feel it was an in between stage to get at something...and i think this one best showed what i was trying to get at.

i havent wrote anything on this for nearly a week...i have came close many times but could never get my brain to think enough to form somesort of coherent sentence. But here i am now.

For the first half of this week i had been stuttering through my work...I had looked at many artists but was unsure of what to do next. One of the artists i had looked at was marina abramovic...the link is to a page with a preview of her performance "art must be beautiful, artist must be beautiful"...which the still below is from. In the performance she is aggressively brushing her hair with a comb and a brush, continuely saying "art must be beautiful, artist must be beautiful". On the link it explains what the piece is about - "it is not about physical pain, but rather about the mental state that can be reached by way of pain." Watching this it is her facial expressions that interest me, going from almost staring into space to the brow creasing when pain is felt.

my grotesque yet

my most recent attempt at this and apparently, it seems, my most horrible, the skin really looks so distorted with the bulges of skin.






after tape off. looks really marked, even scar like..not gonna be able to write more on here until probably sunday....there is some stuff i want to talk about in relation to the work i have been doing and identity and some other stuff but for the moment i do not have time, i just wanted to get this work up as it was the most important at the moment.

another taping..

Second try at taping...its strange how many people find it disgusting just because the way the skin looks....its only been taped and pulled in places...its strange how people respond so badly to it?





love this gouge out look, mad!


skin once the tape has been taken off...looks quite severe.

i do have more photos....just too many to put on here. i will put them on flickr as soon as i can.