Unit 2 - Externally set task
My Starting Point: DisguiseI have selected the theme 'Disguise' as my starting point for the Externally Set Task. I have started by looking at Inge Morath as suggestest to give me a rough idea of what the whole theme of disguise really means. I quite like incorporating a masquerade element into my interpretation of disguise and have been looking at Inge Morath as suggested. Although I don't really like the whole idea of making a paper bag a mask, I do like where he is coming from in how we all have different facial expressions amongst different crowds of people and when in different social events. Using masks in my final piece, I feel, would be quite an interesting thing to do as it is kind of out of the ordinary and want to experiment with making them out of paper mache. I was thinking about using masks as an inspiration.
If i were to take pictures of various facial expressions and use them as 'masks', then maybe I could show how we use our faces in everyday situations. |
Disguise
dɪsˈgʌɪz/
verb
- give (someone or oneself) a different appearance in order to conceal one's identity.
"he disguised himself as a girl"
synonyms:dress oneself up as, pass oneself of as, pretend to be, impersonate,pose as; rarepersonate
"Eleanor disguised herself as a man"
in disguise, camouflaged, incognito, under cover;
unrecognizable;
sailing under false colours
"a disguised police officer"
- 1.
a means of altering one's appearance to conceal one's identity.
"I put on dark glasses as a disguise"
synonyms:false appearance, camouflage, concealment;outfit, costume;
informalget-up
"his bizarre disguise drew stares from fellow shoppers"
"he disguised himself as a girl"
synonyms:dress oneself up as, pass oneself of as, pretend to be, impersonate,pose as; rarepersonate
"Eleanor disguised herself as a man"
in disguise, camouflaged, incognito, under cover;
unrecognizable;
sailing under false colours
"a disguised police officer"
a means of altering one's appearance to conceal one's identity.
"I put on dark glasses as a disguise"
synonyms:false appearance, camouflage, concealment;outfit, costume;
informalget-up
"his bizarre disguise drew stares from fellow shoppers"
Here I was looking at the more obvious aspects of disguise.
Here are some images that I see as being 'obvious disguises'. Covering your face with your hands is something that I would interpret as being an obvious way of disguising something. I quite like the simplicity of it, particularly the ones on top because they have also kind of distorted their faces in a way.
Paper Mache Mask Experiment
Here I was experimenting with making my own mask out of paper mache. I cut out the mask shape that I wanted and started to build up the layers so that it will become firmer and more versatile to work with. What I found out is that it didn't harden enough... or the way that I wanted it to. So I think that I will have to use plaster if I want to make a mask that will be wearable and last for a long period of time. I don't really think I want to stick to this type of disguise, as it's a bit predictable and I think everyone's going to kind of go down this road.
February Half Term:
During the half term I went to the Tate Britian to get some ideas on disguise. An Image the particularly stood out to me was that of Rose Finn-Kelcey's : 'The Restless Images'.
Although it is quite a simple image, it is effective I find it quite a funny image because it's something everyone does on the beach, somersaults , cartwheels, etc. It's not only a disguise because her face is covered, but because its something that you wouldn't really see a young lady doing when wearing a skirt, it's like she's out of character in contrast to the un-moving background behind her. |
Abit about Rose Finn-Kelcey:
She was born in 1945 and studied at both Ravensbourne College of Art and Design, and at Chelsea School of Art, in London. Finn-Kelcey's work is msotly based around the themes of which investigate power, the dilemmas of mastery, the myth of the artist, the nature of collaboration, the surrogate performer, spirituality, longing and death. Finn-Kelcey was well know for being an inventive artist, influenced by the feminist movement, whose work combined ironic humour with deep seriousness, which is shown quite a bit in the picture on the left. She sadly passed away from motor neurone disease on the 13th February 2014. |
Jonni Cheatwood
Jonni Cheatwood is known for 'disguising' his work by pouring or painting paint on a photograph.
He has used quite a simple way of presenting his work which is really eye catching and visually interesting to me. He has said that he likes to work with mix media and also tends to cover the faces in his photos. I'd like to include some of his work into at least one of my final pieces because, I really like the the effect that it gives. |
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Light Painting
I wanted to use light to try and disguise the face, but I didn't really like it, mostly because it looks quite simple and like it didn't really use much skill at all.
This image was my favourite one out of all of them. I think it's because both the face a obscured, especially the one on the right.
I preferred this technique more than the light painting one, as I felt the light painting seemed a bit tacky and didn't really look like much skill had been put into it.
I took these pictures and painted over them with white paint to create a what I feel is quite a spooky looking image.
I then went on to cutting out the faces, leaving the other features around the face. I think that it is quite effective cutting out the background and placing it on top of something like a face.
I want to attempt to cover the face of the picture with things like paint and objects that could possibly make it appear as if it is 3D, much like Hector Sos and Jonni Cheatwood.
I want to attempt to cover the face of the picture with things like paint and objects that could possibly make it appear as if it is 3D, much like Hector Sos and Jonni Cheatwood.
My main final piece is heavily based around this type of image.
I really like this image as it's very effective and also easy to achieve yourself. Also, the contrast from the black and white image to the bright paint makes the image stand out even more. I enlarged the picture I used so that it was big enough to put on some card. Then I poured paint vertically onto the picture so that it fell across the face rather than down. I feel like the end result looks better than I anticipated, because for me, it was quite a big step outside of my comfort zone. I'd never really done anything as adventurous as this when it came to my final pieces (if you can call this an adventurous piece of art).
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Although I really like this kind of disguise, I don't think I would be able to create something similar to this with the supply's that I have. It's quite a unique way of distorting someones face by actually putting something on their face before taking the picture, rather than taking the picture then adding what you wanted onto it afterward.
I did try and attempt to make a mask covered with feathers though, in the hopes to cover someone's face with it: With this, I made Charlotte use her hands to create different facial expressions. I originally wanted the feather to actually come out of her face, but found it quite difficult to present them in the way that I wanted. I also don't particularly like the fact that the feathers were coloured. It kind of made it look really cheap.
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Evaluation my Final Piece
This is what I have decided to use as my final piece.
I have enjoyed looking at the theme 'Disguise' for Unit 2, as I feel that I have come up with some good ideas and responses to the theme over the time we spent on it. I've used Pinterest for inspiration (hyperlink at the top of the page).
I have developed my ideas over the past couple of weeks by looking at a few different artists. At first, I wanted to take some inspiration from Rose Finn-Kelcey, even though her work wasn't specifically based around the theme disguise, the one picture that I looked at had a sort of 'disguise' feel about it that I liked. I briefly looked at Hector Sos and Jonni Cheatwood, who is the person that I ended up basing most of my final piece on.
Over the period of time we had, I tried different techniques to try and get to my final outcome. I toyed with light painting, which is something I already knew how to do as I done it in year 10. I really liked some of the images that came out of the experimenting process, but I still kind of felt that it wasn't good enough for my final final piece. I then found Hector Sos, who I thought had work that was really visually interesting as he liked to use a lot of 3D work in his pieces. I did attempt to do something along the lines of his work using feathers, but again didn't like it.
I FINALLY came to find a piece by Jonni Cheatwood. His work really interested me with how simple and effective it was. The colours contrasted with the black and white of the background and it was something that I just found very interesting. Which is why I based my final piece on it.
Overall, I feel quite pleased with my chosen final piece. Choosing to drip the paint vertically down the picture instead of just straight down has defiantly made the picture more interesting. Although I didn't really feel very confident about what I was going to do at the beginning, I feel that it turned out okay in the end.
I have developed my ideas over the past couple of weeks by looking at a few different artists. At first, I wanted to take some inspiration from Rose Finn-Kelcey, even though her work wasn't specifically based around the theme disguise, the one picture that I looked at had a sort of 'disguise' feel about it that I liked. I briefly looked at Hector Sos and Jonni Cheatwood, who is the person that I ended up basing most of my final piece on.
Over the period of time we had, I tried different techniques to try and get to my final outcome. I toyed with light painting, which is something I already knew how to do as I done it in year 10. I really liked some of the images that came out of the experimenting process, but I still kind of felt that it wasn't good enough for my final final piece. I then found Hector Sos, who I thought had work that was really visually interesting as he liked to use a lot of 3D work in his pieces. I did attempt to do something along the lines of his work using feathers, but again didn't like it.
I FINALLY came to find a piece by Jonni Cheatwood. His work really interested me with how simple and effective it was. The colours contrasted with the black and white of the background and it was something that I just found very interesting. Which is why I based my final piece on it.
Overall, I feel quite pleased with my chosen final piece. Choosing to drip the paint vertically down the picture instead of just straight down has defiantly made the picture more interesting. Although I didn't really feel very confident about what I was going to do at the beginning, I feel that it turned out okay in the end.