Katie Young
The act of layering languages is what resonates to me, when creating my mixed media art pieces. The use of various different techniques: Cut and paste, collage, stitching, embroidery, and photographic printing– all come together in a way that creates this significant rush of realisation. The realisation of today’s structure of living, being and perceiving. There is a dominant connection between each individual aspect of my work, that join together in a way that corresponds to past and present feminist memoire. There is a compelling symbolic representation behind my desired material: the natural cotton calico is a reference back to the 19th century, when the Suffrage banners were created as a way for women to fight for their equal rights. I imply this technique in a similar way but propose a more contemporary approach towards the current issues surrounding our society today.
This is when the performance of deconstruction and re-assemblage begins. Using the technique of ‘copy and paste’ from found fashion magazines to deconstruct the chic portrayals of idyllic beauty and femininity that we all seem to strive towards in today’s society. Combining this technique with the hand drawn aspect of pointillism to create these ‘biomorphic’ limbs on the characters. The contrast of these two techniques, mocks the aspiration of desiring to look like the next model of ‘barbie doll’, to look like some sort of un-natural alien form.
A further exploration into ‘the process’ of making and how the use of these certain techniques and skills, can come together to create such beauty and harmony just through material and creation alone. Constructing these art-work’s all by hand, and the deliberate raw repetition of each individual feature creates this metaphor that plays against the ‘characters’ in sense. A feeling of confusion over one’s identity, yet stimulates the thought of self-reflection, to think about the on-going complexity between connections we have around us.
The Layering of each distinct part of the art-work merge together to create a sense of awareness towards the raw passion and lust we all hold in desiring for the ‘coquettish’ aesthetic. My practise looks at criticizing the societal expectations women follow in today’s world. Themes include beauty, gender identity and the feelings of alienation one can feel to the reality around them.
Combining the two: idea of confronting the system within society with the use of historical material linked to the domestic sphere. These in hand create the stately and harmonical art-pieces which spark the question: Why do we live in a space we are afraid of our true selves?