DEVELOPING A CONCEPT

Inspired by the S/S14 trend, 'Sensorium', I began my summer project investigating ideas about the senses. Sitting in on a year 7 art lesson, I observed how one student in the class worked, having lost all vision at the age of 8. Drawing on a surface called german film which gave an imprinted suface when worked into with a pencil, Keeley's work focussed on texture through mark-making. I wanted my own work to explore and communicate multi-sensory enviroments which stimulated certain senses. Also keen to experiment with light, I focussed my research on only two of the senses; touch and sight.

I began looking at optical illusions and ways in which I could distort vision. Experimenting with photography, I used shells as visual media and a magnifying glass to create abstract shapes. Drawing from these shapes with inks was unsuccessful. I felt the photographs themselves were insteresting, but the drawings I produced from them didn't have the same momentum for me to take them forward.

As ‘Sensorium’ is all about human perception, I began photographing people on the street, experimenting with shutter speed and exposure to create energetic images of distorted shapes. I also took images of the body using a similar process. However, I found these difficult to draw from as they were so abstract. Images of skin and hair were equally uninspiring. I decided the reason I didn’t enjoy drawing from these images is because I struggled to find pattern and repetition in them. In the past, I have tended to work with more motif based imagery. I thought about other ways I could look at the body and skin.

I began thinking about skin as protective armour. I looked at images of animal scales and tribal armour. As well as protective body armour pieces, some African tribes also use body paint as a warning to other tribes. I was inspired by the idea of decorating the skin for protective or spiritual purposes. Thus, my attention turned to Tribal body decoration. I have taken from the initial idea of 'Sensorium' the idea of the human body. My research has instead turned towards decoration of the skin and body, rather than its biological senses.