Installation Development

The body casting process has been therapeutic and relaxing for all of the middle aged women who have taken part in this project, each explaining how it somehow felt like a salon experience, having a conversation during the body casting treatment as you would in a normal day to day salon and making each individual feel at ease during the duration of the body cast.

Due to the therapeutic process, I felt the idea of creating my own body casting salon installation would portray my whole concept in an effective way and allow my audience to get an idea of the process each of the women have taken part in.

Within the salon, I would like the finished body casting sculptures to be presented in a cosmetic and aesthetically pleasing way, displaying the positive outcome of changing the middle aged women’s perceptions of their bodies.

Birdseye view of Installation:

 

 

 

waiting room

 

casting room

 

Sculpture Development

I initially wanted to transform these body cast sculptures into unique objects which could even be used, such as a vase or even ceramic/ plaster bowls. However as I am trying to portray middle age women’s natural beauty, I thought by turning the body parts into something they are not, would take the concept away from my project of wanting the women to see themselves exactly how they look and how other people see them.

 

Below are the plaster body sculptures after a day of sanding.

 



I felt the body sculptures looked untidy and as I wanted them to have a beautiful smooth gloss finish, I decided to sand them some more with an electric sander.
To varnish all four of the varied body parts, I used 2 coats of a white gloss spray paint which gave each of the sculptures a finished look.

 

 

 

 

 

2 coats of white gloss spray paint

 

Plaster Development Process

As I would like to create plaster body sculptures from these modrock cast's, displayed is the plaster parts in progress, starting with a plaster outer case applied to the piece to create a hard structure before more plaster is poured inside to create the finished sculpture which will later be sanded and varnished.

Here are the works in process:

Thick plaster poured into the empty cast shell.

Empty Modrock plaster bandage body cast shell, stiffened with an extra layer of plaster on top.

 Modrock plaster bandage being torn away from the full plaster sculpture now created underneath.

 

Body Casting

Even though I have been extremely happy with the outcome of the Photoshoots and feel they portray my research of distorted perceptions in a successful way, I wanted to carry on the development of getting to know these middle aged women who have come forward to help develop the project.

As I usually like to involve sculpture within my work and remembering how effective the body casting process worked in Stage 2, I wanted to bring it into practice for this project, questioning the women whether they would allow me to cast the parts of the body they were unhappy with which could later be turned into a beautiful object and seen in a aesthetically pleasing positive way.

Each of the women were happy for me to do this and were excited to be a part of this process, which they ended up finding very therapeutic and relaxing.



(Oversized) Breast Body Cast

Stomach and Thigh Body Cast

(Varicose Veins) Leg Cast

(Bat Wings) Arm Cast

 

 

The Ideal Body?

This projection photoshoot focuses on the ideal image we are displayed with in todays society, using the mannequin to represent the 'perfect' looking body and how the media expect the average woman to look, as well as the projected photographs alongside the mannequin of how the real woman in todays society actually looks, bringing the two elements together to create an unrealistic distorted perception.

 

Should we really look like this?

Revealing Parts of the body...

48 Years of age and dissatisfied with the size of her breasts.

This has always been an issue for this middle aged woman even though she seems to be fairly confident towards her body, there are other issues there, however she explain how she is happy with her legs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This middle aged individual who got in touch from the slimming group is 47 years of age and is unhappy with her arms, varicose veins on her legs and her love handles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This woman, 47 years of age who I got in touch with from one of the Slimming Groups, is unhappy with being over weight, dissatisfied with her 'bat wing' arms and is also conscious about the varicose veins on her legs.

She wanted to be involved in this project to try and change the perception of the way she sees herself in such a negative way, always focusing her feelings on the things she wants to change about her body.

 

 

 

 

 

Gillian Wearing influence of masks

 

 

 

This middle aged woman seemed a lot more confident wearing the given masks and started to have more of a personality in front of the camera, seeming a lot more at ease.

 

 

FAP 302 - Body Image

Feeling comfortable in our skin is important, however the Mass Media do not help us to feel that way, as they are believed to be a big influence on women in today’s society. They make the average person feel inadequate and extremely self conscious, striving for an unrealistic perfection because of the ‘thin ideal’ being displayed within the majority of advertisements today.
Because of this, Body Image is an ever present issue for both men and women no matter what age one is.

 

This body of work is centred on ‘middle aged women’ (women between the age of 40 – 60 ) and how they perceive their bodies as well as the changes there are going through regarding their physical appearance and how they feel about this.
Within this project, 4 middle aged women have participated throughout the process in order for them to perceive their bodies in a more positive way. These women have helped me explore the emotions they feel related to their body and the issues they have, as well as investigating the altering appearance of middle aged women.

 

My Research began by creating a survey which was passed out to some middle aged women whom I know, and also to 2 Slimming World dieting groups to interact with some middle aged women who are already trying to change their body.

 

The survey asked the women questions regarding their age, height and weight and also asked more personal questions regarding the part/parts of their body they are unhappy with and why, as well as would they do anything or have done anything to change this in the past, eg plastic surgery, a range of cosmetics or dieting.

Not only did I ask what they were unhappy with, I asked what parts of the body they are satisfied with, only a few responding in a positive way, with the majority of the women explaining they are not happy with any part of their body.

 

I have been really interested in this subject area for a while now as it is a problematic situation and in my opinion seems to be getting rather worse over time, with most middle aged women feeling slightly more conscious now than they did when they were younger. This is a main reason why I have chosen to work with this particular age group and to capture their true identity through my art practice.

 

I’m very much interested in how there is such a large mass of people with current body issues and I wanted to get to know some of these individuals to understand their concerns.