KIRBY CORLESS FINE ART
FURTHER EXPLORATION
16/01/20 - 01/05/20
 Sculpture 1 - Expandable foam and tights.I filled one leg of a pair of tights with expandable foam, initially I struggled with this approach as I couldn’t insert enough of the foam into the tights. I rectified this by rolling the tights down and focused on each section which spraying the foam. This then created another problem as the nozzle of the foam canister made holes in certain areas of the tights and created a ladder. I used this issue to my advantage and appreciated the lack of control I had over the foam expanding outwards. I think the luminous pink colour against the black works really as it creates a very dramatic tone for the piece and makes it look almost space-like or a nuclear explosion? Overall, I think this sculpture is very successful as the sculpture could be seen as a sexual innuendo and creates the right amount of playfulness, I intended them to have. |  Sculpture 4 - Fire retardant foam and plank of wood.I was given this piece as it was originally supposed to be used for keeping things safe while moving. It was made by spraying fire retardant foam onto a plank of wood. I really like this piece as I think it could have a lot of potential. I also really like the textures of the sculpture and it almost looks like something you'd want to eat? I think the colour is very playful and feminine. Combining the colour of the foam and the wood inspires me to further explore the idea of hard and soft materials together. If I had the materials, I could somehow use metal or clay with this piece? As I'm trying to create very feminine, surreal-looking pieces of work, I could include some fabrics or possibly stitch? Or I could add fruit to the sculpture? The fruit would eventually start decaying and the piece would be forever changing. This would link to Sarah Lucas' work as she uses fruit in her work to symbolise genitals. |  Sculpture 5 - Metal ring, expandable foam and tights.I inserted a metal ring into a pair of tights, filled the ring with expandable foam and balloons into the legs. Initially, I wanted this sculpture to represent/ symbolise a woman’s vagina (as women within porn are only seen as a ‘hole’.) After cutting a hole into the tights, I decided the piece wasn’t as successful as I thought it would be. This inspired me to combine it with another small sculpture I created. I found that it worked a lot better and was a lot more effective that my original idea as the sculpture looks like a suggestion towards men's genitalia. I think this works very well as it's an extreme and over-exaggerated form of a male’s genitals. This links to my initial idea as pornography is over-exaggerated and gives a false idea of what sex is. If I was to do this again, I would definitely try and find a less, messy way to do it. This is because a lot of the wet foam from the sculpture ended up on the black sculpture. I would also measure the size of the hole before cutting it. I think the flesh coloured tights are very effective as it gives the sculpture human qualities, but I do think it could make it look quite unfinished too. |
|---|---|---|
 Sculpture 7 - Expandable foam and Asda basket.I wanted to show the build-up of what women have to go through in the mass production of sexual violence in mainstream pornography. It could also symbolise the role that pornography plays in our lives, how technology have made it accessible on mobile phones, video games and laptops. I created this piece by spray painting an Asda basket and filling it with expandable foam. I chose a shopping basket to show the idea of mass production. As things in a supermarket are mass produced, similarly to pornography. I decided to try and fill the basket with expandable foam. I did this to show the way women are being 'pushed' in the porn industry. I thought this would be a good example as I expected the foam to expand out of the basket. Overflowing out of it to link it to the idea of fantasy becoming reality. I ran out of expandable foam while creating this piece which stopped me from exploring this idea fully. If I had the materials, I would explore this idea further and maybe I could experiment by using 'hard' materials with this too? |  Sculpture 7 - Expandable foam and Asda basket.I wanted to show the build-up of what women have to go through in the mass production of sexual violence in mainstream pornography. It could also symbolise the role that pornography plays in our lives, how technology have made it accessible on mobile phones, video games and laptops. I created this piece by spray painting an Asda basket and filling it with expandable foam. I chose a shopping basket to show the idea of mass production. As things in a supermarket are mass produced, similarly to pornography. I decided to try and fill the basket with expandable foam. I did this to show the way women are being 'pushed' in the porn industry. I thought this would be a good example as I expected the foam to expand out of the basket. Overflowing out of it to link it to the idea of fantasy becoming reality. I ran out of expandable foam while creating this piece which stopped me from exploring this idea fully. If I had the materials, I would explore this idea further and maybe I could experiment by using 'hard' materials with this too? |  Sculpture 8 - Expandable foam and metal rods.As I’m working from home, I have very limited resources so my works have to be a lot smaller and less adventurous. I think this sculpture is very effective and successfully shows my ideas. I wanted to use both hard and soft materials together to show the contradiction between them and create a sense of isolation. Similarly to how pornography abuse women and use photographically cut-up images of women’s body parts into isolation and fetishized parts. |
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work was inspired by my previous project of comparing pornography to medieval torture instruments. It led me onto wanting to explore the physical and psychological abuse in pornography and comparing it to the unconscious mind/ the animalistic behaviours within humans. With influences from Ernesto Neto and Charlotte Nash to Tracey Emin, my work has both modern and traditional layers. I have created a number of sculptures using ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ materials by using expandable foam and tights. I did this as I wanted to create unexpected, organic shapes and forms in an experimental and playful way to contrast with how women are exploited and degraded within pornography. Initially, I focused on Tracey Emin’s style of work as she evokes emotion and shock for the viewer, which I would like my work to have. Even though, I felt her form of shock is slightly outdated, I thought it could be effective and poignant to create my work in a more subtle and ambiguous way. This would be more thought provoking as it could encourage the audience to consider and interact with the subject. Similar to my previous works, this project is very feminist based and explores ideas around the male gaze and sexual objectification. I decided to delve into this subject as I feel my approach towards this issue is rather controversial. This is because the idea of women being ‘sex positive’ and pornography being a medium for sexual expression has become more mainstream. Whereas, I see the porn industry as a platform to dehumanise and distort the human body and sexuality. I think that pornography is mass production of sexual violence and eroticises the domination, humiliation and coercion of women.
​
My vision for this project was to create a number of sculptures that could be interacted with by the viewer. I really liked Ernest Neto’s work, how he expanded his work beyond visual means by creating sensorial experiences, encouraging the viewer to touch, smell and walk through the artworks. I would have liked all my sculptures hanging from the ceiling with ‘S’ hooks, to make them very clinical and clean looking but also to create the idea of a maze, so the viewer could ‘get lost’ and be overwhelmed by the work. I would have also liked to experiment with the idea of different aphrodisiac scents, particularly scents that arouse men, such as black pepper, cinnamon, lavender and pumpkin. I wanted to do this as my project focuses on how women go through a lot of physical and psychological abuse within the porn industry for the pleasure of men.
Things I think went well throughout my project are my exploration of expandable foam and using it in a lot of different ways, whether that was filling materials with it or inserting materials into it. I also think I was successful by creating the right amount of playfulness and texture within the sculptures. A lot of my sculptures had sexual connotations and innuendos which I think created the right balance between them being too vulgar and in your face with being more subtle and impactful. I encountered some issues throughout my project as when I started experimenting with different materials and fabrics, a lot of them didn’t work as they didn’t have much movement or stretch that I needed them to have to create the sculptures. Another issue was filling the tights with expandable foam, I struggled doing this as I couldn't insert enough of the expanding foam into the tights for them to expand enough. I rectified this issue by rolling the tights down, just as you would if you were putting them on and focused on each different section, letting the tights drop by themselves when they were full. This then created another problem as the nozzle of the foam canister made holes in certain areas of the tights and created a ladder. I used this issue to my advantage and appreciated the lack of control I had over the foam expanding outwards as I felt it gave the sculptures more life and movement, creating very organic shapes.
​
I’ve adapted to working from home very well and haven’t let my ideas and intentions be thwarted by the current situation. I have really enjoyed experimenting with expandable foam to make interesting looking sculptures, both rigid and flaccid with a lot of potential to push them further. I could do this by dyeing the foam and exploring my idea of combining ‘hard’ materials with it, like metal and wood. Although, I did try to use these materials, I didn’t have the resources. I think my project could have been more effective if I had chance to fully explore and push my ideas as I wanted to take the scale and size of my work further. I don’t think my work has come to a conclusion yet and I would like to create more work around this idea to see where it can take me. Overall, I am very pleased with the outcome of my project so far.