Review of Justin Shoulder & Collaborators: The River Eats

A couple of weeks ago Diego Bonetto printed Justin Shoulder's Poster for the River Eats on our Big Fag Press machine. The poster itself is amazing - one of the most intricate, visually engaging prints we've done.

As a thank you, Justin got Diego and I a couple of seats at the preview show at Performance Space a couple of weeks ago.

Poster for the River Eats, design by Matt Stegh, printed on the Big Fag Press

The River Eats is Justin Shoulder and collaborator's phantasmagorical performance which flabbergasts the audience with its somewhat trippy tale of a creature called Pinky who transforms from a histrionic self-obsessed attention whore into a mesmerising butterfly.

The scintillating performance is an overwhelming sensual experience - hypnotic light movements and dramatic music hold you spellbound while Pinky prances around in exquisite costumes undergoing her (its?) identity metamorphosis.

The audience sits disillusioned in a way that cannot quite be described in words, unsure of whether to laugh or clap, and half feeling like they may have fallen into a psychedelic dream or unknowingly consumed some illegal substance.

The River Eats was a confronting experience. The one word that came to my mind whilst watching was akrasia - the concept of acting against one's better judgement, despite conscious knowledge and prescience of events to come. This is a phenomenon which I think is present in many a mind's decision in the modern world. When this psychological conflict is applied to identity, we have people are caught in a constant battle between who they are, who they think they should be, and who society sees them to be.

Pinky is caught in this battle, and frolics from one spotlight to the next until (s)he is confronted by her equal and opposite identity, exorcises yearning for fame and fiction, and is eventually reborn into the character Oo - a beautiful black and pink butterfly whose force is derived from the river, from nature.

Justin Shoulder has created a plethora of strange creatures like Pinky, often inspired by various cultural traditions, fables, myths, stories and masquerade, and all with the intent to deconstruct how we emotionally relate to our reality.

Pinky specifically was derived from the idea in Taoism that identities have a sort of Yin and Yang, that every energy force has an equal opposite. Shoulder was also inspired by a visit to the Brazilian Amazon, which for him embodied notions of life and death, rebirth and decay.

The River Eats Trailer from Justin Shoulder on Vimeo.

Daddy's Little Princess

Daddy's Little Princess at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre by Linda Wilken opened a couple of weeks ago. If you remember, I first met Linda by chance at the Firstdraft Depot where she was undertaking a residency and I was working at the Big fag Press. We discovered we had some conceptual ideas in common and I interviewed her for Ivory Tower Magazine last year (page 10 in this document).

Sexualisation and objectification of young girls is a current social and political issue. This exhibition represents the way young girls in contemporary western cultures develop their identity based on popular culture and stereotyping which begins in childhood. Influenced through magazines, music videos, social media and the internet, these ‘young consumers’ are being seduced into stylising themselves on hyper-sexualised ideals.

-From the Casula Powerhouse website

Here are some photos I took of Daddy's Little Princess.

[All photos are mine of Linda Wilken's work at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre]

i'm perfection

One of my articles involves inteviewing/ surveying models to find out how they feel about their looks. So many times have I heard from a friend "wow, if only I looked like that". But... everyone sees their own flaws and noone else's. It's not like Miranda Kerr has some magical ability to never have a bad hair/ skin day. We're all human, right?

A friend showed me this website, where models talk about the unseen flaws of their bodies.

i'm perfection

Linda Wilken

I went over to Firstdraft Depot last week (where the Big Fag Press is located), to give a speech to some artists in residence who might be interested in doing some prints. I also sat in on talks give by the artists about their work and was particularly interested in Linda Wilken who looks at the sexualisation of young girls, and subverting gender roles which society presents us with in many ways. She's currently using imagery from Disney in collage to encourage people to question what these stories we tell our children are really saying.

*2 images: Linda Wilken

One of the points she looks at is also magazines aimed at teenagers like Dolly and Girlfriend, who inevitably get picked up by much younger girls. These magazines are filled with information about sex, makeup, fashion, etc, all which, when put in the context of innocent childhood, can be a little unnerving. This was interesting to me because I've been looking at how adult women are affected by magazines, but I've never given much thought to the fact that even child models are being photoshopped.

I've been in further contact with Linda, and I'm currently reading her honours thesis. I've arranged to interview her and use some of her work in my major project. It was very lucky for me because one of my other artist contributors pulled out.

SurveyMonkey thoughts

I've been reading through my 44 SurveyMonkey responses. Some of the answers have been really thought-provoking. About 80% of people who answered my survey described themselves in general as "informed consumers", which is great - that's pretty much the target market I was looking for. In retrospect I would have not titled the survey as "fashion", because I think a few people answered "no" as they are not informed consumers of fashion.

Consumers feel strongly about topics across a wide spectrum of issues - political, environmental, religious, culture, technological and social. Some specific issues brought up were: gender equality, gay rights, fair trade, design authenticity, poverty, health, secularism of ethics, "slow" design, renewable resources, sustainable town planning & city building, the banning of smoking in public, support of local & organic produce, anti-animal testing, anti- mass productions, and waste/ landfill ethics. The most prominent issue for my survey responders was environmental sustainability and fair trade. 7% of my responders did not answer the question.

70% of my responders avoid shopping at specific stores or buying specific products because of moral/ ethical issues. Stores include: Max Brenner, Fast Fashion Chains, McDonalds, BP, Woolworths/ Coles, Nike, Starbucks, Gloria Jeans, Cotton On, Nestle, Proctor & Gamble, Zara, Bayer Pharmaceuticals, Shell, City Beach, Mossimo, YD, Amazon and Portmans. Products include: Non-organic skin/ beauty products, products made in China, non-organic foods, non-Australian made products, products which use palm oil, cheap fashion, fur products, products tested on animals, caged eggs, large coffee chains, "adult" products.

Responders said they shop at a huge variety of stores. There were responses rangeing from discount stores like hot dollar, zara, topshop, kmart & supre, chain stores like sportsgirl, portmans, jay jays, witchery and general pants, designerwear like gorman, sass& bide, allanah hill, miu miu, mimco, and some higher fashion stores like chanel, prada and bally. There was also a number of people who said they shopped at local boutiques, and well as online stores like etsy.

Magazines of responders included Frankie, Cleo, Russh, W, Numero, Oyster, Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Lula, Dazed & Confused, OK, Grazia, Shop Til You Drop, Wallpaper, ID and Madison. Other publications: SMH, Daily Telegraph, BBC online, ABC online, the Australian, Monocle, the Guardian, New York Times online, New Scientist, Reddit, MX, and Sunday magazine. Blogs include: TheyAllHateUS, amandpalmer, showstudio, and design milk blog.

I then tried to gain an understanding of my consumers by looking at the way they make decisions. I separated answers into 4 categories: "humanist", "indecisive", "safe" and "personal". So, for example buying a present for a friend, giftcard would be the "indecisive" option, jewellery would be the "safe" option, something at the oxfam store would be "humanist" and taking her out to lunch would be "personal". In retrospect, I'm not sure these answers worked the way I wanted them to. The response for my movie choice one, for example "A Comedy because there's an actor in it who was funny in some other movie so you think it'll probably be okay" was my "safe" option, but I'm not sure it really determined attitudes, people may have simply chosen it because they like comedies.


I think the most interesting answers came from my question about definitions of beauty and weather society's ideals match what people's ideals are. Every single person who answered the question (34 responses) said they largely disagreed with societal/ media repsresentations of beauty, or that they were influenced by them and wish they weren't. There were many responses who said they recognised beauty in confidence and personality: "inner beauty", and beauty in people who were unique and different. It is therefore so surprising that media strays so far from consumer demands. It is possible, also, that some people shaped their responses based on social desirability, ie what they "should" say in reponse to such a question. But I think that largely the reponses were truthful.


45% of reponders said they did consider or strongly consider a product to have more monetary value if it is ethical/ sustainable/ fair trade/ funding charities/ protesting against malpractice/ etc. 56% said it did sometimes, and only 7% said it didn't. Examples of products people pay more for are: local food produce, fair trade coffee, free range eggs, oxfam toys, underwear made in Australia, organic products, hand made clothing, lush cosmetics, Trilogy products, organic materials & cotton, authenticity of design, vintage clothes, charity products, and non-mass produced products.

Giopet's Graphic Art

And another caught my eye:

 *All images thus far from Giopet's Graphic Art Blog.

The latter no doubt inspired by Phil Poynter's "I didn't recognise you with your clothes on", Dazed & Confused 1998:

A Collection of Cartoons

*All images from McHumor.com

Ann-Sofie Back

So, part of my dissertation was looking at the way we use fashion to hide or conceal parts of our identities, and one of my case studies was the work of designer Ann-Sofie Back.


Here is an excerpt of my current dissertation draft:

 ___________________________

A case study relevant to this argument, is the work of Ann-Sofie Back, which blurs the line between art and fashion, looking at concepts of masking oneself with clothing, and as Beck states “drawing inspiration from mine and other women’s failures at achieving perfection and beauty” (in Granata 2007, p394).

There is a general consensus that Back is considered as an avant-garde designer, at least in the first few years of her work, because rather than focusing on fashion as a commodity, she broke certain practical fashion rules in order to expose ironies present in fashion systems, and the superficiality of fashion which she felt she grew up with (Granata 2007). Her interest in fashion was spurred by ideas like Goffman’s that “the individual... intentionally conveys misinformation[s]” (1959, p2). While many theorists have explored fashion as an indicator of identity, essentially clothing being the construction of a personal cultural expression (Wilson & de la Haye 1999, p1), Beck’s work expresses the notion of fashion as a disguise or mask, “rather than its alleged ‘authenticity’” (Granata 2007). Back’s work surrounds the idea that every aspect of fashion is “a perfect lie, watertight, nothing left to chance” an example of which is her “faux wasp-waist garments” which have a fake belt attached to the front which can be tightened to give a visual sense of thin-ness (in Granata 2007).

The concepts present in Back’s work are not news, in fact society has a general understanding and awareness of “the power [fashion] wields in defining and communicating our identity” (Arnold 1999, p490), and that clothing acts as a “superficial gloss” (Craik 1997 p1). Individuals use fashion deliberately to disguise and flatter aspects of their identity, one example of which we are all familiar with is the thought process we go through when selecting what to wear for a job interview (Goffman 1959, p47).  

 

 Arnold, Rebecca 1999, ‘The Brutalized Body’, Fashion Theory, Vol. 3 Iss. 4, pp. 487-502

Craik, Jennifer 1993, The Face of Fashion: Cultural Studies in Fashion, Routledge, London, New York

De la Haye, Amy & Wilson, Elizabeth 1999, “Introduction” in De la Haye, Amy and Wilson, Elizabeth ed., Defining Dress: Dress as Object, Meaning and Identity, Manchester University Press, Manchester

Goffman, Erving 1959, Representations of Self in Everyday Life, Anchor Books, USA

Granata, Francesca 2007, ‘Subverting Assumptions of Female Beauty: An Interview with Ann-Sofie Back’, Fashion Theory, Vol. 11, Iss. 4, pp. 391-402

____________________________

 I looked further into Ann-Sofie Back's work and I liked how her design work is driven by concepts in society she wishes to comment on or disagree with. Her concepts have included the way men look at porography, mental illness, and the idea of God. I think these concepts lead her to some very interesting places.

 

Porn:

 Porn 2:

   God:

God 2:

 *Images linked from Ann-Sofie Back

I suppose I'm looking at ways a fashion shoot could be made into something that can be interpreted as semi-satire, and I think anything as concept rich and opinionated as this could really work.

The apparent downsides of being this beautiful.

 *Image from dailymail.co.uk

Many, many of my posts so far have come across the issue of self esteem, especially among women in today's society. I am a firm, strong advocat that everybody deserves to have self esteem, feel good about who they are and the way they look. However, that is not the same thing as arrogance.

I think the idea of having a "swelled head" has been an acute fear in the last several generations, and therefore, led to what could possibly explain some of a lack of self esteem among the younger generations of today due to those fears manifested in parental behaviours.

My point is, that there is a happy medium, and I do not think Samantha Brick's recent article falls within it. I can understand her point of view - there is indeed something violating about having a car toot or someone whistle at you walking down the street. But to take it to this article and complain about several events far outside the realm of sexual harrassment which would probably flatter many women, seems a little arrogant.

An interesting fact is people generally don't like the company of others who are overly sure of themselves because it makes them feel self conscious. And that's exactly what Samantha is talking about in her article - the problem is, if this is truly what she is objecting to, her writing it on a world arena multiplies her problem! (As shown by the some 5,000 people who commented negatively on the article in just 24 hours' time.)

There have been many reponses to her writing, including this review, and a beautifully satirical survey comparing her to the character of Derek Zoolander which I found amusing and very relevant to my current field of research.

Don't get me wrong - I don't criticise someone for feeling good about themselves, nor for embracing the change that comes with ageing. I just feel like putting it out there so strongly makes others feel a little hopeless. Perhaps Samantha Brick could do with a little bit of a reality check - perhaps wear a fat suit and some daggy clothes and she may face a whole different set of prejudices.

Body Image Magazine Covers

I just thought I'd document here a few case studies I'm looking at in my dissertation.

Recently the Royal College of Psychiatrists in the UK has called for laws to be introduced that forces magazines and newspapers to mark advertising images that have been airbrushed, thereby protecting the vulnerable who may not understand the impossibility of aspiring to a digitally enhanced physical perfection.

It's a bit of a catch-22 really, because advertising in itself is about projecting a dream in order to sell its merchandise. Again we come up against the devil consumerism - what is the value of a person's self esteem?

There have been a few interesting magazine covers in the last few years to tackle this issue.

Jennifer Hawkins bares all on the cover of Marie Claire 2010

Image Reference: Marie Claire

Jennifer Hawkins’ cover shoot was done to support the Butterfly Foundation, a charity which provides support to Australians with Eating Disorders and negative body image. I really wonder whether the foundation really thought this one through. Jennifer Hawkins is Miss Universe! I mean, next to her, even naked and unairbrushed, who isn't going to feel inadequate? I can maybe see a few uneven skin tones, that's about it. I don't even really see why she needs airbrushing. It uses beautiful lighting, and she still has on make up and either a really good fake tan, or a genuine one. I know the article inside went into huge detail about how hard she works to look that good. But that is her job to do that. I certainly don't have the time or money to look that good, so how am I supposed to feel comforted by this image? I don't really get it.

Sarah Murdoch, untouched on the cover of Women’s Weekly 2009

Image Reference: The Age

This particular one was done to show that there can be beauty in ageing (I believe one of my previously mentioned mentors Mia Freedman was actually part it). We can discern a few of Sarah Murdoch’s wrinkles, but she is still extremely beautiful, and even Helen McCabe the editor said, “The one point I have to make is that this is possibly one of, if not the most beautiful woman in Australia that I've done this to, so the risk is not that high”. That kind of annoys me, I mean, maybe we should be taking risks!

Both these magazine covers have caused quite a bit of debate and personally, I can see how they could kind of be interpreted as patronising to hear these women feel good about who they are. I mean, why shouldn't they? Who wouldn't want to look like that?

But, at the very least, these initiatives do raise critical thinking about the fanstasy created by airbrushing, and raise awareness for companies like the Butterfly Foundation, as well as hopefully making the odd middle aged woman feel okay about a few wrinkles around her eyes. Ageing is a process that happens to everyone, and it seems to me, that putting all your energy into fighting it makes you look a little less classy than someone who embraces their age and does it gracefully.

"Fat" is not a feeling.

I've heard the saying "fat is not a feeling" many times in my life, and it occured to me when I read this beautiful blog post by Jo Hilder.

 

*Image from aforementioned blog post.

An Inspirational Story: Aimee Mullins

I recently heard a podcast from The Moth, which was a story told by Aimee Mullins so inspirational, it drew a few tears! Aimee needed both her legs amputated at the age of 1, and struggled through her adolescent life with accepting her disability. She managed to overcome her struggles by embracing the way she had to live, and finding the positives - which included world running records using prosthetic legs, having designer legs made for her by the late Alexander McQueen, and becoming a model to show off her "leg wardrobe".

Image by Terry Richardson

Photography: Nick Knight

Aimee Mullins in Cremaster 3, collaboration with artist Mathew Barney.

I.D. Magazine:  Howard Schatz Photography

Aimee Mullins as a muse for Alexander McQueen

She describes the turning point in her self image where her father told her, "you can see the knee joint when you walk, it's inappropriate, go back upstairs and change", and she refused. She refused "to hide something about [her]self that was true".

After that she started to embrace her disability, and speaks of her different legs, or "wearable sculpture" with humour. "I can be as tall as I want to be, I have different legs for different heights, I don't have to shave, I can wear open toed shoes in the winter and most importantly opt out of the kankles I would have most certainly inherited!"

"I had moved past acceptance, I was having fun with my difference - thank god I'm not normal, I get to be extraordinary! When we can celebrate and truly own what it is that makes us different, we're able to find the source of our greatest creative power."

Here is beauty in diversity.