I began this project with the intention of creating my first experimental fashion film. I immediately established the key themes I wished to explore including; Feminine identity and sexuality, Beauty ideals and Cleansing rituals. The scope of these topics were so large, I conducted small literature reviews in order to identify ways the themes could be linked and refined. This contributed towards the construction of my aims and objectives for the project, including;
- To further understand the construction of female identity,
- To explore and develop the concept of the muse through the exploration of the body and flesh,
- To reference classical imagery and representations of women and metaphors from classic painting,
- To comment on feminine beauty ideals and female sexuality,
- To execute the practical outcome with a humorous tongue in cheek yet cinematic style.
I began by exploring Julia Kristeva’s theory of ‘Abjection’, this then developed into an exploration of the grotesque and Barbara Creed’s theory of the Monstrous Feminine. Furthermore, I explored the artist Orlan and how, through her practice she challenges beauty ideals. This led me on to exploring the concept of performing for the camera and question how femininity and identity are constructed in the post internet age. This encouraged me to explore using prosthetics in a humorous yet slightly disturbing way.
I developed my interest regarding spaces and how they are occupied by looking at Swimming pools and water with it’s baptising and ritualistic aspects. Additionally, when I went to view different swimming pools during the location scouting process, I was reminded of the womb and amniotic fluid, which again served as a reference to abjection. This linked back to beauty ideals and female representation in renaissance painting which allowed me to begin developing a narrative for my practical outcome.
A breakthrough during this process was when I organised an artist residency at the swimming pool. I immersed myself in the building, observed how people occupied the space and documented this through drawings and further research. I found the residency massively helpful with the pre-production aspect of my project and was able to plan my film with good knowledge of the space.
Research wise, the methods I carried out were mostly qualitative, as this is appropriate for anthropological and sociological studies. In terms of experimentation, I feel working collaboratively with a sound designer was a massive achievement as I had no prior knowledge of this, I would like to develop my collaborative skills and work with a larger team next. With regards to visual experimentation, my desire was to photograph women in their baths and conduct intimate interviews in these spaces, in terms of this project evolving, I had underestimated the difficulty of finding women willing to pose nude, this is something I will be re-addressing. I enjoyed the exploration of movement and this has led to further ideas and focuses for my next body of work involving sexuality and movement in the digital sphere.
The main challenge I encountered was refining the concepts I wished to explore, this led to time-management issues as I found I could spend too much time researching to an unnecessary extent. In terms of what I will do differently, I want to challenge myself in terms of sound design by including other instruments and utilising music production software, develop more elements of humour within my practice, further explore the use of prosthetics and explore body architecture.
To conclude, this unit served me well as an experimental process. I explored new technologies and defined a critical framework which I will further refine. I learned the importance of narrative in fashion media production and subsequently, the themes of the sacred feminine, sexuality and freedom and renaissance art I explored will be developed further.