The work which I produced for this brief is probably the most significant work I have made thus far over the course of the foundation. It has played a part in defining and changing my style, I needed a small part of inspiration which would promote this change and I finally found it.

The large collection of objects at the Pitt Rivers museum led me to pursue the ‘monsters’ route of the brief. Being there made me realise how much stuff and clutter humans have and how consumer society has developed, and most importantly how there has been a maintained darker side to humanity. Thus creating human monsters is what I settled on. The whole project was a series of experiments and attempting to create pieces with mediums which I had never used before.

The pieces above are some of my favourite pieces which I created during this project. The bottom piece in bright blue is one of the first pieces where I was coming to grips with the idea behind the project, for this I had looked at the likes of Hannah Hoch and Jean-Michel Basquiat. I chose to look at Hoch because I liked the frankenstein way she used photomontage to create her figures which reminded me of monsters, the concept behind her work and how she was considering the monstrous side to society and how she dealt with it in her professions was an interesting idea to me. Basquiat on the other hand, I looked at his work due to his brutal mark making and the way that he pieced his work together in a collage way too, so it was not easily seen as a human but more monstrous. Therefore in this blue piece I chose to use charcoal and oil pastel due to their freer nature and how uncontrolled and messy they are as mediums, and how this would be the most applicable way to communicate my ideas. The piece on the middle right, is how I chose to develop this idea of monsters and introduce how humans are monstrous through our consumerist natures and thus I created my series of Magazine Monsters. Magazines demonstrate our consumer world and the preened and pretty side of society which is in my opinion fake and false. Above this piece is a worksheet I did to experiment with how I collaged these figures and how I could combine my own work and other imagery, again I chose to use charcoal due to its messier feel. I like the phrase ‘piecing together a monster’ since it shows how we are the ones creating monsters and developing so that the monsters are being built as we go along, they are always parallel with society. The middle and top left pieces are a further development of this idea of a consumer monster I chose to think more about the imagery which I used, therefore I used body paint on my sister with gems and gold leaf to make he into this piece of lavishness and advertising by painting her with sale logos and slogans. I then worked with these photos in my sketchbook in a collage way and create them into the monsters which I desired. I like the combination of the clean cut photo and the more expressive drawing as a contrast as it brings in the idea of being pieced together.

Below is another piece I created nearer to the end of the project, I chose to work with photoshop as I had briefly used it earlier on but had not had a chance yet to fully explore it. I had also gotten a small drawing board for my laptop for Christmas, therefore I couldn’t help myself but start to experiment. This piece is called Narcissism and is one of the human monsters. It is set in a photo of my childhood dolls house, and here you will find the monster Narcissism who stares at it’s own reflection. Vanity has moulded humans into monsters from a young age, the dolls house here presents this idea of youth where this monster lives until the day we die. I have included things such as narcissus flowers, jewels and pill pots all to add to the concept of narcissism in this piece.

I decided to take this experimentation further and attempt animation at the end of the project, this piece shows a monster in a bleak short which considers my thoughts on humans today, where they can be easily moulded and manipulated, watched unwaveringly by the eye of consumerism. This is shown through how the character moulds itself from the word ‘freak’, I chose this word since we are becoming freaks of nature in our consumer world obsessed with appearances. I like the way the monster develops from the ball in a grotesque way, like a golum creature. Then ripping it’s skin off to reveals all the eyes, which represent all the eyes which watch us and put pressure on us in the world, the eyes of the billionaire corporations. It is on this instagram account since I have to pay for a better account here to put videos on my blogs.

https://www.instagram.com/hellz.humanz/

On going through my work with a tutor some points were made about the work which I had done for Spellbound. The main part being that I need to consider the pieces which I use in my collage style more, I need to make them more my own by altering them. This made me think that I could maybe burn, melt or break the pieces, this will also give them more of a story and bring more interest to the piece. Another important point made about my work is that it is too controlled at the moment. I need to find a place where I am more expressive in my work, there is an element of control to my pieces which needs to go. Thus I have noted that this is something I need to work on, just sitting down with my sketchbook and drawing, even going to life classes.

Therefore I have noted the things which I need to focus on for Sustainable Futures.