2021 Photo
Izzy Richards ‘Her Place’ Inkjet print Artwork 1 Inspired by the works of Eli Rezkallah and his condemnations of traditional misogynistic media, I similarly aimed to create an artwork that depicted a world seemingly distant from, yet frighteningly close to the world we know. This work was designed with the intention of creating a collection of scenes that portray elements of horror and surrealism to explicate the idea of women rising against oppression in a domestic setting. I have observed that television and film often portrays women in a heightened and unrealistic manner that serves to support misogynistic views of women, thus I have created a work that reflects this medium yet have subverted it to depict a reality in which these roles are twisted and amplified in a violent and grotesque manner. Violence and aggression towards women is far too normalised in both the home as well as the wider world, so through my gruesome portrayal of a world in which this is both subverted and exaggerated, I aim to create feelings of discomfort within viewers and ask them to question the aggressively patriarchal society in which we live. I created a film-like scene through making use of multiple studio lights as well as various props and costumes that when combined, appear as though beyond reality. Each photograph was edited extensively in post-production through photoshop to achieve a further surreal aesthetic, specifically through the “beheading” of the male figure as appearing exaggerated and fake. Artwork 2 ‘Hands’ Inkjet print Through this work, I aimed to depict the oppressive and dehumanising nature of capitalism through combining this idea with elements of surrealist photography. The disembodied hands are symbolic of the dehumanisation of the working class, as workers have been and are often referred to as “hands”, thus I aimed to create a work drawing on elements of surrealism to portray and condemn this view and subsequent treatment. The series of photographs almost presents the hands as objects for purchase or for display, representing the value as only being seen in the labour they provide. The final photograph in the series aims to represent the oppressive capitalist figure through the second hand grabbing the first, presenting elements of violence, aggression and cruelty that the working class has been and is often subject to. I utilised one LED lamp as the lighting, illuminating the hands against a black sheet. It was through utilising the curves and black and white tools in photoshop that allowed me to transform this set-up into a series of surreal scenes. |
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