3rd Discussion
The last of the three events featuring the artists and a participating audience. For this event there was only one artist that was Sarah Eyre, Layla Sailor is currently in China where she has been based for a few months now. However she was still available to communicate through Dr Devlin texting her through we chat. The work by both artists were a mixture of photography, collage, a gif being projected on a wall, a video and a physical object. A mix of more to see and consume than the other pieces of work, which were photography and one other video. This event focused on feminism and how the female body is/was being represented. The work displayed during the exhibition is currently unresolved at the minute according to the artists. There was 27 participants altogether, which was a slight increase from the previous event. Again like the previous event there were two responders fetched in by Dr Devlin to critique the work. They were Dr Alison Rowley and Dr Lynne Fathome.
Dr Rowley started proceedings off by stating that she had done a lot of previous research into feminism as part of her studies, so she had quite a fair bit of knowledge on this subject. The Movie image piece of Sarah's work has a lot of connotations towards it, Auto-erotism, queer reading of the body. The fact that the gif of the projection in the form of parts of the female body and a Kaleidoscope is difficult to represent in still images as well as moving image, so she commended Sarah for that. The fact that nothing stays still during the video was important in the work. The pieces by Sarah reminded Dr Rowley of Martha Rosler who created work after finding a lot of playboy magazines in her apartment so she decided to cut them up and lay them on the floor. These pieces of work by Sarah on the other hand were using this same technique but in the form of digital technologies used. Onto the photography side of Sarah Eyres work, there were 5 photographs that were reminiscent of Sarah's previous work using wigs, but this time using collages of the female body and wigs. The wigs represent a part of the body that can be taken on/off to the users choosing. The wigs can be a double function that plays on maintaining an attraction whilst identity becomes a play-thing for the spectator and user.
Onto her response of Layla's work titled Dolores focuses on a plastic sex doll, Layla discovered in China, where the buyer would purchase these dolls in a machine. The blow up plastic doll evokes a sense of touch. The deflation/inflation of the doll in the video is reminiscent of the way the body is used. The work featured used a lot of saturated pink with in both pieces of work actually, pink being the colour of connotations of women normally.
Dr Devlin gave his response to the work, which gave a different perspective of the art, as he is a male responding to how the female body is being represented. On Sarah's work the ability to play with gifs was a unspecialized form of presentation, a form one may not find within a gallery. Sarah responding to this statement by saying that she was drawn to gifs owing to there throw away nature. They are part of the everyday as we look at them all the time through social media through our phones and not normally a projection in a gallery. The ordinariness of the gif is what attracted Sarah to the work being in that form. She discussed how she would cut and paste up magazines like vogue, re-photograph them with her phone, apply the kaleidoscope format using an app in here phone then finally use after effects to get the video aspect to the work. She further said that it was similar to a toy and didn't want the eye to settle whilst the viewer was watching the footage. The images are trying to seduce, seducing the viewer perhaps?
Dr Fathome gave her response by stating who actually constructs femininity? The plastic doll in Layla's work resembles a woman but any women in general. The sign of the female body in its creation is that the skin is actually plastic. The doll surrounds itself in sadness, not just it's a doll to be used and disposed of but the male using this object. Her response on Sarah's work was that the gif in its circular movement the viewer was trying to escape, the animation of the gif made the work more interesting than the photography collage/montage. Montage is a means of representation, making up elements deliberately and putting them together.
Dr Devlin contacted Layla and begun to ask her questions about the work on display. He asked her the emotional state of Dolores. She responded by stating that Dolores was devoid of emotion and that she saw Delores as a human as well as a sexual object. Which begs the question was she right to humanize this creation. The name of 'Dolores' was brought up if it was the name of the doll in the machine or if Layla gave her the name. The answer was that Layla named the doll the day after she saw it in the machine, thus decided to rescue her from the machine and basically 'free' her. The original name Dolores had was 'Sexy Human Doll' consequently it goes back to a point previous of the sadness around the doll and sex without emotion is sad. As well as the fact that it is funny/disturbing that the purchase of the doll is sex and companionship. The doll became Layla's companion/Savior/Exploited Friend during her purchase.
The next and final event is on the 5th may. During this event will feature an extended version of a dance choreographed by Gerry Turvey. The dance will be a response to the artworks featured in Discursive Documents and is set to conclude Rotor as a whole. Proceedings begin at 5 o'clock...