week 4

I decided not to use the faces. I did try some features, but having some begged the question, "Why those and not the rest?" I couldn't answer that question, they seemed arbitrary. Having all of them made the compositions a lot more busy and since the "who" wasn't important to me, I opted for none.

I'm happy with how they turned out! They don't look all that different from last week but they are a heck of a lot more portable and I can finally open the windows (too bad it seems the nice weather has passed for a while)!

all 6"x6". various papers on paper.

 
 
    

Sarah's feedback:
Hi Emily,
Really enjoying seeing this work evolve - it feels like you are bringing together many of your ongoing obsessions and impulses into a coherent and provocative series. Fashion, pattern, figure, all come together here - but this does not feel at all slight. I think you are hitting on issues of identity, and (forgive me) consumer culture in a humorous but pointed way.
So glad the faces are missing - we are distracted, appropriately, by everything else here. he context, the accessories, the color palettes (as if each person has become a fashion story board) and the very delicate construction. Each figure is just barely holding together - we are aware that a piece might fall and reveal a contradictory layer underneath.
The craft here is just right - it is important that we see that these are cut and pasted and just barely glued together, just as identity of appearance is completely ephemeral. The blank space of the face is funny but also incredibly poignant. We cannot see who the figures are, and yet they seem to be working hard to construct their own existence!
So what next? I definitely think a giant piece is a great step. This is amazing and rich territory. How are you feeling about it? Are you interested? Hope so...this could keep you occupied for awhile.
S

My response:
I am interested. As you know identity is an ongoing fascination for me, how it changes over time for one person, how it changes by the minute based on audience, emotion, and other environmental factors, the difference between how one thinks they are perceived verses how they are perceived  by others  (johari), how society expects people to present themselves. The chick or egg scenario with identity and consumerism, the continually obsolescence and simultaneous timelessness of pop fashion.

The new big one will have the layers more buried, sort of encased rather than something so delicate this will be cumbersome in a way, like you'd need a chisel or a pick ax to get through to whats underneath. I'm curious to see how I feel after I do the big one.



My response to an inane "peer" comment:
 I think anything involving humans has an underlying story, the viewer may be projecting but that's what we do as humans, put our own stuff onto everyone else. The reason they are better faceless is because it does leave space for the viewer to put themselves into it. It creates more space for possibility instead of punctuating the story. The ones with 2 people have a dialogue between characters with body placement and styling. The ones with only 1 figure beg more questions about the solitude, one looks lonely, one looks confident and they don't even need the features to say these things.