Mind Map
Mapping Activity: brainstorm/map questions you have about the making and viewing of art in your own practice/this project.
Write you projects current question focus and respond to the following
What is your role as artist in the work?
My role as the artist is both the creator and the subject, particularly for the painting I'm currently working on which is a nude self-portrait. My role as the artist allows me to input my own personnel beliefs and ideals into the painting giving an insight into who I am.
What is significant about material, method, process in your project?
I am using oil paint not only because I am an Oil painter, but because oil painting has a vast history and was often the most common tool employed by male artists to objectify their female subjects, so by taking a historically "masculine" art form (in contrast to craft) I'm able to subvert and transform both the medium and the subject into something that truly represents femininity and female empowerment to me. Another key factor is how I paint and my use of color. In previous artworks I've used harsh and stark colors on my subjects such as as bright yellows and reds, in this artwork I've decided to employ more softer colors to articulate this idea of the feminine, however I will not be stereotyping it.
How is the viewer involved in your project? What is important about this involvement?
When deciding what canvas I will be using I automatically gravitated to a large scale canvas, so the subject within the image is at equal height and eye level to the viewer allowing them to be engaged within the scene as the subject in the image will be staring out of the canvas at the viewer in a way the asks "what are you looking at?". By doing this I aim to subvert the male gaze and make the viewer feels is if they're the victim of the gaze rather than the subject in the portrait who stares at them from the canvas.
How do institutional contexts e.g. viewing sites, art world etc impact on your work?
Having the painting placed within an exhibition space is ideal as I'm not a large fan of the capitalist art community and wish for them to be gazed down by the nude figure in the painting, emasculating them.
How is meaning/knowledge produced or shared in your work?
Within my painting I will be incorporating key symbols and signifies to showcase the themes of sexuality and empowerment, and giving an insight into the subjects beliefs and ideals, and to ultimately show them as a sexual being not an object. I've included things in the painting such as a black a cat which is a symbol for witchcraft and female sexuality, a contraceptive pill will be seen in the background, a vase of flowers to represent the vagina and female sexuality and some feminist iconography in the background such as The women's room by Marilyn French.
What are the significant social, political, cultural and historical contexts and how do they inform your approach?
From the previous paragraph many social and historical contexts have influenced my work, such as the feminist art movement and theories (male gaze) and the history of female representations and how I can subvert those traditions.
Set this project in a different time/social/cultural frame – what would be different?
If this painting was created in the early 1980s or 70s it would be rather controversial as even though feminism was starting to make waves in the western and European world it still had not yet obtained fundamental human rights which many women take for granted in the western space.
Write you projects current question focus and respond to the following
What is your role as artist in the work?
My role as the artist is both the creator and the subject, particularly for the painting I'm currently working on which is a nude self-portrait. My role as the artist allows me to input my own personnel beliefs and ideals into the painting giving an insight into who I am.
What is significant about material, method, process in your project?
I am using oil paint not only because I am an Oil painter, but because oil painting has a vast history and was often the most common tool employed by male artists to objectify their female subjects, so by taking a historically "masculine" art form (in contrast to craft) I'm able to subvert and transform both the medium and the subject into something that truly represents femininity and female empowerment to me. Another key factor is how I paint and my use of color. In previous artworks I've used harsh and stark colors on my subjects such as as bright yellows and reds, in this artwork I've decided to employ more softer colors to articulate this idea of the feminine, however I will not be stereotyping it.
How is the viewer involved in your project? What is important about this involvement?
When deciding what canvas I will be using I automatically gravitated to a large scale canvas, so the subject within the image is at equal height and eye level to the viewer allowing them to be engaged within the scene as the subject in the image will be staring out of the canvas at the viewer in a way the asks "what are you looking at?". By doing this I aim to subvert the male gaze and make the viewer feels is if they're the victim of the gaze rather than the subject in the portrait who stares at them from the canvas.
How do institutional contexts e.g. viewing sites, art world etc impact on your work?
Having the painting placed within an exhibition space is ideal as I'm not a large fan of the capitalist art community and wish for them to be gazed down by the nude figure in the painting, emasculating them.
How is meaning/knowledge produced or shared in your work?
Within my painting I will be incorporating key symbols and signifies to showcase the themes of sexuality and empowerment, and giving an insight into the subjects beliefs and ideals, and to ultimately show them as a sexual being not an object. I've included things in the painting such as a black a cat which is a symbol for witchcraft and female sexuality, a contraceptive pill will be seen in the background, a vase of flowers to represent the vagina and female sexuality and some feminist iconography in the background such as The women's room by Marilyn French.What are the significant social, political, cultural and historical contexts and how do they inform your approach?
From the previous paragraph many social and historical contexts have influenced my work, such as the feminist art movement and theories (male gaze) and the history of female representations and how I can subvert those traditions.
Set this project in a different time/social/cultural frame – what would be different?
If this painting was created in the early 1980s or 70s it would be rather controversial as even though feminism was starting to make waves in the western and European world it still had not yet obtained fundamental human rights which many women take for granted in the western space.
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