My Reflection of the individual and the social

My Reflection of the individual and the social

The individual and the social was the second project I received from Leeds College of Art where I had to pick a topic to focus on that what linked to the social and a topic that I would be interested in. At first I really struggled on what my topic could be as I had a discussion with my tutor and I had hardly anything I was interested in, a part from art, after a long meaningful discussion we discovered that I was a people watcher and that I like to observe people. With having something that I was finally interested in, I then needed to link it to the social part where I decided to make my project on how easily people judge now days as so many people are judgmental.

Because I wanted to focus on people judging others, I decided that I would need imagery of people, so as a starting point I went into town and took a vary of images of bunches of people. After looking at the images I selected my favourite and painted over areas as I wanted to express that if we couldn't see their faces or bodies would we still judge them on the way they stand or so on. With my work I just wanted to get the viewer thinking. I did quite a lot of work based around this idea using the photos but these three are my most successful ones as I feel like they express the meaning well behind the piece.



Acrylic paint on photograph

 I applied the paint using a palette knife as I wanted a texture that was thick and rough looking as I don't want the viewer to see what's behind the paint as I'm trying to express that it doesn't matter what's behind the paint it doesn't matter what we look like.  

Acrylic paint on photograph

 I would of preferred it if the images was more interesting like the first image as the image is quit full and there not a lot of negative space whereas the other two are quite empty.

Acrylic paint on photograph

 After working with photographs I wanted to try something different so I decided to work with items of clothing as I feel like now days we are always judged on our appearances and how we dress and if our clothes have brands on or not. I worked with a vary of clothes such as pants, a blazer, baby grows and a hoodie.

Hoodie with acrylic paint

I applied paint to the clothes in areas as I just wanted to represent that its the person beneath the clothes that is more important. I also did a blazer but I felt like it didn't work very well as it didn't hang on the wall as well as I wanted it to as I wanted it to look like a persons posture. I got lots of positive feedback from the hoodie so I might pursue doing work like this is the future.

Blazer and hoodie with acrylic paint

Pants with wire words

Baby grow with handmade head made from wire, masking tape and acrylic paint

I also wanted to focus on the younger generation and how a mother might be judged for how their baby is dressed. with these two pieces I didn't want to paint on the baby grows as I wanted to try something different so I decided to make their faces and focus more on how I hanged the baby grows and the composition of the piece as I wanted to try to make this piece quite weird and unusual to see if I would get an reaction from the viewers. As I always want a reaction from a viewer.

Baby grows with handmade head made from wire, masking tape and acrylic paint

After looking back at my previous work I decide to go back to working with photographs as I thought it expressed my theme better as some people struggled to understand the pieces with clothes.

Photographs with acrylic paint

 I feel like these pieces work better to express my theme and makes the viewer think more.

Polaroid pictures

I was quite happy with these pieces but these didn't really get a reaction from the viewer I want to shock people with my artwork I don't want them to just walk past it. So instead of painting or removing faces from an image I decided to make a numerous of masks made from latex free gloves as it gave me an unusual material to work with what I wanted as I didn't think a lot of people would know what they are made from. I originally painted the masks but I just preferred the images to be in black and white as they looked more freaky and scary.

I believed these photos was missing something so I decided to develop them further and stick more material over them to obscure the face even more. And make the composition into a set of 4 what I thought worked a lot better and I got the reaction from the viewer that I wanted.

2D relief photos



I loved doing this project as I created work that I wanted to do, I used a vary of materials and I also made artwork that I didn't think I would ever do. Do this project has made me realize that I want to create work that's going to get attention or shock people because if I don't get a reaction I don't feel like my artwork is doing its job properly. I also feel like I'm more than likely going to be placed into the media strand at college as I have worked with a lot of photography and I am more than likely to experiment with more photography down the line but I also feel like I want to experiment with producing video art as its always something I would like to do. After finishing this project I now need to think on what I want to focus on in the future either stick to a similar theme or try doing something totally new. But with my next project I feel like I should research more artists so I would have a vary of artist to influence me.

Strengths & weaknesses 

Strengths 

• Creating artwork that's more my style 
• Working with a vary of materials.
• The use of clothes worked better than I thought so this is something that I want to carry on further. 
• I feel like the use of mix media works very well especially with paint and imagery.

Weaknesses

• Not much artists research. 
• I feel like my 2D relief pieces could of looked more professional if I spent more time on them.