Featureless Faces.

These two pieces of work are probably some of my favourite pieces. I created them from the primary image below and my intention was to make them completely featureless. At first i intended to highlight them with the words 'no face, no soul, just piercings and tattoos' which sums up the work quite well. I wanted to show how i think society refuses to look past tattoos and piercings at the actual person underneath amd created the images as a way of showing how i think society sees people like me. For the coloured piece i used acrylic paint and paonted with my hands as an alternative to a paintbrush because i wanted the work to look imperfect again as a way of showing how society views people with body modifications. I also used unnatural colours as a way of showing how we are 'not normal'. I am very proud of this piece because of the ways that the colours work together and just the way it looks in general i think is very effective.
The second piece is done with ink and water. It is the same principle as the one opposite it however i decided to experiment with different materials to create the same effect. Overall i prefer the coloured one because i think it has more depth to it.

Identities hidden by Stereotypes

I created this piece by spraying fixitive on my hands and printing it onto tracting paper and using ink to decorate over the top and around the hands afterwards. I like the effect the fixitive prints make as it makes the hands look ghostly and as the hands are the representation of the identities i think this works well. I have drawn over the hands in ink to contrast the darkness of the shapes over the white and grey of the hands and the background to make the tattoos on the hands look more prominent so that the attention is drawn to them rather than the hands as is the case in real life. I used the words 'identities hidden by stereotypes' just to highlight the issue i am trying to get across with this piece of work. I like this piece because i think that the idea of the hands being ghostly and representing identities is true to life and means a lot and since it was my first experimentation with fixative on tracing paper i think it was very successful however i was not expecting the ink on the hands to dry so blue and i now know i should have used a darker ink to improve it. I also think it could be improved with better tattoo designs on the hands.

Our Free Time

OI created these pieces of work to highlight common stereotypes that are used about people with body modifications. The first piece of work i did to show how people with Body Modifications are sometimes mistreated in public. I have created this purely from personal experience. I used the technique of scratching in to photographic paper again as a border to the image. I used this image which was origionally intended for my research because i think that the way it looks like the mouth is screaming highlights the whole piece of work and symbolises the way i feel when people act this way towards me. I like this piece because of how personal it is and i think the printed background works well with the scratched photographic paper. I think it could be improved with using a picture of my own piercings in a way but may not look as authentic and it might look a little fake.
I created the other two pieces to show stereotypes regarding what people think modified people do in their spare time. There is a huge misconception that people with piercings and tattoos are part of cults or practice witchcraft, although i think this is an outdated view i still think it is important to show it in my work because it is a very large stigma attached to people like me and is, in the case of me and my friends, far from true. This is why i created the ouija board. For the piece on the right i used an ink pad to create a background as i think it creates a very grungy effect and for the ouija board background i used ink and bleach to create a dirty wood effect. I do not like the piece on the left because i think it is missing another piece of imagery. I think there is too much background showing and although it could be easily fixed i Dont think that anything else would be fitting to put there. I like the ouija board piece because it was my first attempt at experimenting with ink and bleach and i think it worked very well. I think for it to be improved i should have either made it on only one page or found a way to make ot morw spread out and fill up more of the page. For the ouija board i also created my own lino tile for the design in the middle. I got my inspiration from a design on a ouija board in my local piercing studio which i was not allowed to photograph amd created my own based on it.

Useful links:
I used this article to look at common misconceptions of people with body modifications and to get another persons view on it.
http://m.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/01/myths-about-tattoos?cat=commentisfree&type=article

Religious Perspectives

The first perspective i thought to look at in terms of my work was a religious perspective because it is very controvertial. I think that one of the reasons that people are prejudice is because of religious views and i wanted to bring this point across in my work.
Many people believe that it is against gods will to modify your body from certain teachings in the bible:
Lev 19:28 Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD
I wanted my work to represent the way in which strongly religious people may be predjudice towards people with body modifications.
For these pieces i experimented with scratching into photographic paper, a technique which i am new to, with a border of printed letters. I decided that scratching the letters into the photos would make it effective because the images look more eerie and 'evil' in a way which is what i was trying to get across as i think some religious people may see the changes we make to our bodies as being a sin or an evil deed. I like the end product but i think that again for it to be improved i should have used my own images, i plan to come back to this technique with my own images at a later date.

Useful links:
(i used this religious forum to find the correct quotes from the bible teachings and to gather oppinions from religious people about body modifications)
http://bibleforums.org/showthread.php/163778-Body-Modification-Tattoos-in-the-Bible

Artist Research

Polke: I chose to research Polke as a starting point because of his work with Graffiti, halftone dots and layering. I think that his work is interesting and the techniques used in his work could be applied to mine to make it more effective. I was also planning to use a lot of photo manipulation in my work which would help me to acheive work inspired by Polke's. Whilst researching Polke i found out that he was a German artist whi experimented with a wide range of materials in his work, he also founded a new movement called "Kapitalistischer Realismus" in 1963 with Gerhard Richter and Konrad Lueg, this was also referred to as "Socialist Realism". I tried to use my own work to create a piece inspired by Polke however i find that it does not bring across the point that i wanted it to in a subtle way. I think this is because it is made as a collage and the imagea do not fit together very well and none of the images used are primary research. I also think a variation of colour would have improved it. I think to improve this piece it should be done on a computer instead of a collage.
Useful links:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmar_Polke

Primary research

After researching Body Modification on other people i decided to use my friends and myself for primary research. I used:
Ryan: 1 piercing, 1 tattoo, dyed hair.
Ciarán: 1 piercing, dyed hair.
Myself: 5-9 piercings (shown), dyed hair.
I chose these images because they are plain and the images show nothing except the people in them. I wanted my images to be like this when i took them because i think that a plain background and plain lighting will make the audience less distracted and forced to look at the people in the image which is important to me because I think that society can sometimes try to ignore people with Body Modifications and i want my work to make it almost impossible for the audience to ignore it.

Research

I began my project by researching Body Modification from its origins to present day. I thought that by looking into the history of Body Modification and the use of it in different cultures that i would have a wider understanding of the subject. I looked at the history of Body Modification (Otzi the Iceman and various tribal cultures) and Body Modification in our culture today and used examples of celebrities to show that Body modification is more widely accepted in western cultures today. I also looked at various types of Body Modification to different extremes (Hair dying, Surgical modification, piercings and tattoos)
After researching all i could think of i have decided that i want to base my work around modifications i am familiar with such as hair dye, tattoos and piercings, mostly because it will be easier to collect primary research on but also because it is what myself and my friends have experienced prejudice against the most.

Useful links:
http://www.newscientist.com/mobile/article/dn17469-worlds-oldest-tattoos-were-made-of-soot.html
http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/insane-tribal-body-modifications/14365

An Introduction into my A2 Art.

I have chosen the subject of Body Modification for my A2 Art. I have decided that i want to show how the public perceives people, particularly teenagers, who have Body Modifications in both negative and positive lights. For this i will be focusing on self images of mainly Me and people close to me because i think we are prime examples of people who are strongly judged in society.
One of my main focuses so far is prejudice towards people with heavy Body Modifications as in my personal oppinion, i think that the majority of society judge people like me and my friends and refuse to see past our appearences.