Reflecting back...

Working with different people, working in different locations and embracing a theme that was very different from my textiles work has really pushed me out of my comfort zone.

I actively engaged with my group through social network as well as weekly meetings outside of the timetable, making full effort to get to know them and understand their practices as we also had three people from Film and Media course in the group. I actively participated in the presentations regularly and took advice from my tutors and peers in order to develop my work further. Although sometimes the ideas I received were very different from what I wanted to do, I used all the knowledge and skills I had learnt in my previous projects in order to be more selective about the ideas worth taking forward.

Our group had an idea of creating an interactive show where all of our ideas would link together. However, the space we were given was not enough to put that idea into action therefore we just focused on our own pieces. As an artist, sometimes you have to compromise with what you have and work with however big/small space you are given and it is all a learning process for us. I echoed the work of my fellow member as our pieces were right next to each other and I wanted to have a more collaborative and subtle exhibition.

From this project, I have learned that I am a good photographer and I don't always have to rely on Photoshop in order to make my images 'nicer'. Restricting the use of colour and just focusing on the concept was a refreshing change from all the work I had been doing before in Print and Embroidery.

In my future collaborations, I would love to create an outcome made by the whole group because having more than one person working on a piece can end up becoming very exciting and energising.

Preparations for the final show

After I presented the box to my tutors, they suggested that I put up my photographs in the show as they are far more effective. As a student I sometimes can't see what has worked well and what hasn't as I don't have as much experience as my seniors, which is what the tutors are there for, to provide honest feedback. Sometimes photographs of a 3D object become the final product instead of the thing itself which is what happened in this case. 

Right next to my space is Jasmine's work who has made a photo-montage in the style of David Hockney. I echoed her work but in my own style, in order to have a more collaborative and subtle exhibition. 

Jasmine's final piece

More Experimentations

Photographs of the box that I am hoping to put in the final exhibition. I kept the colour minimal as I did not want to over-crowd the box because it already had 175 broken mirrors inside it.The idea of having a box with windows so people can look inside it, relates to Alice looking inside Wonderland through the door.

Final Piece Experiments

Box with broken mirrors, photographs, foil and cylindrical mirror. For some of the photographs, I used the idea of Alice in Wonderland having two sides to it, negative and positive. I used my dark photographs to demonstrate the negative that people have concluded over the years and brighter ones to demonstrate the childish and fairytale side of it. However, I'm not too keen on using foil as it makes the box seem too busy and crowded.

Broken and Distorted

Some interesting photographs I found.

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/379470

My response...

I like the photos where my face is barely visible and hidden in the broken mirrors. These photographs have worked really well and can potentially be a part of my final outcome. 

This particular photograph reminds me of brickwork because of the colour and layers of broken mirrors. It is incredible the number of effects you can achieve with some broken mirrors and a basic camera.

Distortion

My most successful work of Unit X so far. 

After researching artists that look at distorting faces, I decided to have a go at doing the same with my own but with a different approach. I photographed features of my face from different angles in a dark room with a red torch. I then collaged together various photographs to distort my face and ended up with these rather disturbing pictures. This work is very different form anything I've done before, therefore out of my comfort zone. The photos look eerie and dramatic with a surreal twist to them. I also like how you can't tell that all these distorted facial features are of the same person.

Final Exhibition Planning

As I missed Thursday's session due to an exam, I was shown this picture by my group to keep me up to date with what they did that day. It's a rough first plan of the exhibition indicating where we'll be placing our artwork. From this sketch, I can see that the idea is to create an interactive exhibition with concertina books next to each member's piece with directions for the audience to lead them to another piece, resembling Alice's movements in the story. Adding an interactive aspect to the exhibition is a very clever idea and I think it will be an exciting collaboration  between the group to merge together our separate pieces for the exhibition. 

Image taken from Jenna's blog
http://jennasimpson94.blogspot.co.uk/