10/04/2022 – Comparing current work to original plan

Nearing the end of the semester, I am re visiting my original plans for this project from September and seeing how well I have met my goals and ambitious of the research and work undertaken.

What I had originally set out to do, was to “use both visual and theory-based research to generate a body of work that reflects how the uncanny views of the feminine body prevail as we move further into the 21st century.”

What I have managed to do within the work, I feel, is to create visual reflections of my interpretations of a female health issue (endometriosis) that I have personal experience with. While the uncanny has slightly taken a back seat, it has influenced the visual approach of the work: obscuring/transforming the body, using familiar aesthetics of sewing and bodily images to create something unhomely or a bit uncomfortable.

I hope that these intentions have came across though I believe that even the best laid plans are never truly stuck to 100%. Particularly within a research based creative practice, the research firstly will open up to new ideas and interpretations of the original intention, and then the creative aspect will start to bend and stretch the intention into something similar but slightly different.

This is shown in my using the uncanny and the feminine image as a starting point but moving into a focused area of the medical and health care point of view, which I believe, has put a contemporary lens upon the work – something that I felt was needed to bring new life into my work and re-invigorate it for myself.

It has been an important challenge for me to focus into something that is a contemporary issue- the treatment of women within the healthcare system and the conditions they may face, as well as the personal aspect, as this is a condition I have to deal with myself, and so can bring a non-clinical point of view.

What I am facing now, is the intention beyond the creation of the work – i.e, how I would like it to be presented or shared. With the end of this semester approaching and the interim show going to be taking shape in the next two(?) weeks, it is time to decide how the work generated can be shown.

My ideal world has an installation of the sculptures created, lots of the ‘cell’ shapes I have sewn filling the walls of a room, with projection on top of them, immersing the viewer in the space. The costume I have created is also in there.

Maybe this kind of thing can come together for the final MA degree show. For this interim show, we have a much smaller space to work with and so I am at this stage thinking that IF I can get the final pieces of my costume finished, and a video or digital print of the costume being worn shown together, this would be ideal. I think this will give a reflection of a clinical view of the work, almost as if an investigation of the work as a creature. As the space itself is quite clinical – the foyer at Grays, white walls, staircase, this will help to create this idea of presentation of medical work (though it obviously is not).

However this pans out, I hope that it will communicate in the way that I have intended: to generate dialogue surrounding womens health care. I also hope that it shows how this uncanny view of womens bodies in the medical system that I have envisioned has been supported by my research, and meets the expectation of the original plan.

The thing is, though this is published, it is a working post, all will be revealed in the next two weeks, I am now also waiting myself to see how it all comes together, uncanny anatomy to be revealed.