Sunday 20 December 2009

Anatomical Portraiture


At the end of my first year at UWE I chose to revisit one of my earlier projects which was based on the theme 'Self & Other'. I felt that the project, which was originally based on comparing individual differences between tattoos, scars and imperfections, had not been allowed to fulfill its course due to the restraints of the brief, so I chose to re-open the body of work. I started to look at what makes us who we are, considering what lies under the surface of our skin, which vastly determines the way we look. A dominant part of this is our bone structure. I used the calipers in my original project but chose to add the Da Vinci-like illustrations to add another element to the images, that of medical journals and the idea of a sterile environment. I wanted to draw upon themes such as lobotomies and unconventional practice. I reflected upon imperfections within the human structure and the social expectations to which we strive for, using medical procedures to rectify any issues we may have with our own bodies.