Tea Activity
The concept behind this small installation was to emphasize the main concepts I want to show through my final piece. I shaped the tea into a simplified shape of breasts as I am working with female body parts that are being sexualized. I then placed small cutouts from the paper attached to the string that said things like: “be what you ought to be” or “not limited”. I felt like those words went in pair with the concept of my final piece – empowering women.
Photos of my final piece
Final Installation
Artist statement
Our modern society has developed a specific set of guidelines women are expected to follow in order to be considered as beautiful. By distorting the two most sexualized female body parts, I hope to evoke a discussion about how the female body is perceived by both the society and women themselves.
My work is strongly influenced by observing modern women’s persistent struggle of fitting into society’s beauty standards and their constant urge to achieve perfection.
By creating the skin like organic forms, I hope to achieve a sense of closure and acceptance women have with their own skin. The sculpture is made to blend in with one’s skin and in a disturbing yet subtle way distort the body provoking a reflection on self-perception.
The concept of achieving acceptance through distortion is supposed to make the viewers step out of their comfort zones and embrace their misshapen physicality. By wearing the piece, I hope to create an intimate relationship between myself and the viewers, encouraging them to look at their bodies from a different, unusual perspective.
By deranging what is considered a beautiful body, the piece is meant to empower women, showing them that beauty is a concept transcending just the human physicality.
References:
Esmay Wageman, “Second Skin”, 2015
https://www.esmaywagemans.com/second-skin
Ewa Partum, “Samoidentifikacja”, 1980
https://culture.pl/en/work/self-identification-ewa-partum
Critique feedback:
- reminded of the body horror genre
- Peter Joel Witkin – reference
- People actually wanted to wear it, one person tried the bottom sculpture on
- the tights created a skin-like structure, which made distorting the body quite delicate in oppose to the brutality of plastic surgeries, which also in way distort the human body
- the concept of bringing out and showing body parts that are usually covered up with underwear
- where and how would I see this sculpture be displayed? – Ideally, the sculpture would be on a table, next to the table there would be a large sized mirror encouraging people to try the sculpture on. It could be displayed in any public Polish museum (if it would be allowed as two female artists who work around the subject of sexuality were banned from displaying their work there)
