Development

 Mannequin Concept Layered Into Wood And Natural Forms

Bringing the natural and aesthetic world together. I have always been fascinated in nature and how we take it upon ourselves as humans to take great pleasure in removing it from its natural environment and essentially using these materials that are not ours to take in the first place and repurposing them as pieces of furniture/interiors. This changes them into something to be desired and an asset or object to collect and admire from the comfort of your living space. However, nature in my opinion should remain as nature as it is not something to destroy and make into something else or a necessity. 

I use my creative imagination and give myself permission to play with the world through my own personal lens. I am similar to Liz West who is an artist I have followed whilst studying Art, and she is   somebody who is a huge inspiration to me and influences the work that I create. In particular the Liz West Trolley series kickstarted my fascination and ongoing joy to be able to play in the world as a creative. 

The mannequin body/forms made form catering cling film is actually an idea I plucked from a previous project I did called Green. I saw there were a huge amount of mannequins lying around and not being utilized because the fashion students were still working on their garments so I took the opportunity to use them.

Using Catering cling film is more durable and thicker so this is more effective than regular cling and won't tear as easily. Wrapping cling around the entire model, I usually do about 6 layers. The next step is mixing acrylic paint and PVA glue together. The PVA is an adhesive so it is thicker than the paint would be on its own and gives a lovely sheen to go with the surface of the cling film, and together these 3 materials marry well together. For this project I wanted to dip my toes into coloured waters and make the work as bright and bold as possible to make it more of a statement in such a bland and boring world, where there is not enough colour and vibrancy.

The three colours I am taking forward into my final piece are the primary school colours of  red, yellow and blue. This was my first taste of creativity and the world of Art as a child. From the first moment of taking the time to mix colours together, I never put the brush down.   

This was my vision for my Final Piece. I imagined having a series of these cellular plastic vein like figures arranged on top of each other, piled together in a heap as you would do when you're throwing logs onto a fire and then intertwining logs/wood/branches and natural forms I've removed from the landscape because that is what we do as humans, we mess around and often play with the natural world and cross those boundaries for our own personal advantage and pleasure. This is how I am able to make a connection with ASD/ADHD because I almost feel like an object or a piece of chess on the board of society. They can do with me whatever they see fit or necessary because if I don't fit in there is no place of belonging on the pedestal of society which means it is an extremely fragile system that can fall and crumble to the ground as quickly as it was built. 

In conclusion if one person or a group of people threaten that system or don't fit in to that ideology we are quite literally rejected and tossed to the bottom of the pile. Which is sadly a fact of how society functions. Everybody has to be exactly the same and the people that cross that line remain outside of the borders. Thinking about this concept with my creative head on, the vibrant coloured people and natural forms coloured and energetic expressive marks, represents freedom of movement and freedom to be undeniably yourself and whoever you want to be, which is how it should be always in my humble opinion. I am quite literally saying this is how I express myself, creativity is something I use to enhance and elevate and uplift my whole self, mind body soul and being. That is quite literally the air I breathe and the habits I embody and I have never known anything else, nor have I wanted to ever accept that I should stop tapping into the Artistic and creative/innovative brain and the wonderful way in which I see the world as I want to look at it through the lens characterized by my ASD/ADHD and I can honestly say, hand on heart the world is much brighter and more beautiful because of this.

I put some real thought into this idea and came to the conclusion that, using cling film people as part of this project wasn't something that fitted in with my final concepts/ideas and statement. The cling film and acrylic/PVA Adhesive both represent the idea of something that is an illusion/mirror image to make something appear to others as more desirable and attractive. Although both materials were working well together visually, I  only wanted to use one of these going forward to connect with the wood and natural forms theme.  Because of this reason I decided that they should remain as a process and trial/error period, but however will not be a part of my Final piece.