Jehan Vazifda
Veronica Padilla
ARTIST STATEMENT
My art is about several things. I am inspired by the queer, the grotesque, the disenfranchised, the forgotten and the monotonous. This is because I feel like I am all of these things. My art is a form of catharsis for me. As is my writing. I can relieve any emotion and dark, deep thought. I used to only be able to sketch. Now, my art has transgressed into video, installation, fine art, performance and photography. I feel I am my strongest with a sort of fine art that is inspired by Dadaism, abstract expressionism and deconstructivism. People like Rouchamburg, Hannah Höch and other artists of the same calibre. Since coming to New York, I have also started drag, which I view to be its own performative art.
I don’t have a particular focus when I make art. However, I have noticed that certain themes keep coming up. I love exploring grotesque things. This could be anything from literal ripping flesh to mindsets to perverse sexuality. Another aspect is being queer. Exploring my gender and sexuality is one of the most confusing and terrifying, yet liberating things I have ever done. So it is natural to me to exploit this into art about my journey. I also love exploring my childhood. I recognize I have had a lot of privilege growing up but I have a lot of issues with my family, particularly with my mother about my sexuality and the expression of it. My art does explore that relationship with her.
When it comes to fashion, my main focus is deconstruction, draping and textiles. I am inspired by incredibly different designers. From Rick Owens to Dries Van Noten. From Alexander McQueen to Lemire. I don’t want my aesthetic to fall into one specific category. I have an absolute hatred for designers that design FOR a customer, not lead a customer. I love the idea that people could wear the clothes I make as well. I am not avént-garde and I don’t pretend to be.
I am a fashion designer, living in New York and Mumbai. I am studying at Parsons The New School for Design, a school that I have wanted to attend since I was 13. Fashion is the thing that I want to do for the rest of my life. In my art, my relationship with people and sexuality is what drives me to create.
SEMINAR FOCUS
READINGS:
I did not find the readings particularly helpful. I didn’t find that they helped me or my writing in any way or contributed to my thought process during the studio. I did love ‘Oh, Lucy’. This related to a lot of the things I did both in studio and seminar, specifically about repression and anger.
BRIDGE 1-2: Journal Entries:
I loved the second part of the journal entries as since my topic was sex and fetishes, it forced me to document the strange and interesting things I hear and saw every day. Sex is a large part of human life and its expression can be incredibly outward or very repressed.
BRIDGE 3: Visual Essay Collage.
The subject of my collage was fetishism. I enjoyed subverting the topic, including parts of my notes that were the most important to me, as well as forcing myself not to print but use exclusively found content which made me think harder and more conceptually about sexuality.
BRIDGE 4: The Whitney
Even though the trip to the Whitney didn’t end up impacting either one of my finals, it was an incredible opportunity to see such a moving exhibition. I chose to focus on the work ‘AIDS’ in the LGBT section. The repetitiveness and the almost advertisement quality about it made me think about the amount of awareness that had to be spread in order for people to care about this disease.
BRIDGE 5: Final
Abstract
The paper will explore the BDSM and foot fetishes and how they are accepted in everyday culture. Aspects of both fetishes have been accepted and incorporated into everyday life, however, the fetishes themselves are still taboo and are sometimes deemed unnatural or perverted. This research paper will break down the aspects of both fetishes, their earliest documentation of the fetish and the aspects associated with it. It will then compare and contrast the aspects of them that are used in everyday life and the aspects that make them taboo. Exploring religion, film, fashion, the paper will conclude with my personal stance on the subject as well as a proposed reason for the vilification of the fetishes.
Excerpt:
BDSM has been vilified by society as it involves sadism and masochism along with various leather and bondage aspects that could seem disgusting or intimidating to those outside the community. The idea of a foot fetish seems alien to most, although less so now. Yet we constantly see aspects of BDSM and Foot fetishes being used in fashion all the time. Leather and high heels are two of the most sexual parts of fashion. In this research paper, I will attempt to identify the aspects of these fetishes that have been normalized, discuss why they are accepted and then argue why the fetish itself is taboo.
STUDIO FOCUS:
BRIDGE 1: Visual Deconstruction
I chose stills of Meat Joy by Carolee Schneeman as I have previously done a piece based on this artwork. Her work is so incredibly impactful to me and I even got to hear her speak about her artwork and have a conversation with her. This very much impacted the rest of my work for the semester.
BRIDGE 2: Diptychs
The diptychs were incredibly hard for me as I find exploring one topic for so many artworks almost impossible. I started out with foot fetishes and then expanded it to fetishization in general. I think the most impactful piece that I did was the video Diptych of a girl sexually eating a banana and a shoe covered in salad, meant to comment on foot worship and the sexuality of food in relation to feet.
BRIDGE 3: Taxonomy
This project helped solidify my final focus for the last project. I looked back at all my pictures and art and created almost a visual archive of NYC gay nightlife. All my friends, people that I had met in clubs, pictures that I had taken, experiences that I had had.
BRIDGE 4: Whitney Research
Again, I didn’t feel like the Whitney affected anything that I did. Although it was an incredible exhibition, I left without any inspiration from it.
BRIDGE 5: Final
The final project is truly a culmination of everything that I have done this semester. It is incredibly scary to let my possibly shameful emotions and judgements come out for everyone to see, but I wanted to express this in an installation as there is no other way I know how. The recreation of a vapid club scene. This is an overview of everything I feel about being a part of or trying to be a part of something I have looked up to for so long.
