Our group was left slightly perturbed after we discovered the recent rehanging of the collection meant that our focal painting of The Brayford had been removed. This was initially very worrying as we wondered as to whether our piece still had relevance and made sense in the space despite our original stimulus being missing. However, after this panic, we took the time to look at what had taken its place and to our relief realised the drawing hanging in its place had in fact a lot of relevance to our piece. It is a drawing of the statue, Venus de Milo. This sculpture depicts Venus, also known as Aphrodite, who is Greek Goddess of love, beauty, and fertility who also represents affection and the attraction that binds people together in marriage.
Instead of now removing our makeup in front of the painting of the Brayford, the image is that of beauty, meaning we could now be seen to be making a statement on what ‘true beauty’ really is. Considering the nature of our performance, it has allowed us and an audience to interpret our actions in a different way and by incorporating an event from the real world,
“In effect the work becomes not only the original concept or piece, but any significant public or official response to it, or any further variations which the work may take as a result of its engagement with the world at large.” (Burnham in Kaye, 2000, p194)
Here Burnham explain how by using an action which people are aware of and can relate to, like we use the application of makeup, it allows the audience to respond to it in another way which they see fit. Is it covering girls’ faces with makeup to fit with society’s vision of perfection, just like artists often mask or alter their art to please the public? Will our audience see the link between art and society masking itself to create unnatural perfection or even make a new connection of their own? Wearing makeup has become an accepted and often expected part of society for women. This natural need to wear makeup has become embedded into our daily routine, the need to put on a mask to please the people we will meet. “It was revealed that women wore significantly more makeup when they anticipated an interaction with a highly attractive target, irrespective of sex.” (Regan, 2011, p563). We will take a personal act usually done in the private of your own home and instead use it as a performative act.
Developing from this further is the visual image of a male drawing three females which is the main visual of our piece for the audience. This evokes ideas regarding the male gaze and the deeper reasoning behind females desire to cover and conceal their faces. We are currently experimenting into the different ways in which Tom can draw us and if his sketching should match our application of makeup, almost as if he is controlling our movements. We will experiment with the speed and accuracy of his drawings so the more erratic they become, the hastier and less accurate our makeup application will be. This will make a bold statement on the idea of the male gaze and hopefully make our audience question their reasoning behind their own daily beauty regime.
This change of stimulus has developed our ideas in ways we hadn’t first thought about but in turn gives our performance deeper social meanings and connections into how beauty is portrayed in art and in life.
Works Cited
Burnham in Kaye, Nick (2000) Site Specific Art: Performance, Place and documentation. London:Routledge
Regan, Pamela C. (2011) “CINDERELLA REVISITED: WOMEN’S APPEARANCE MODIFICATION AS A FUNCTION OF TARGET AUDIENCE SEX AND ATTRACTIVENESS”, SOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND PERSONALITY. May: 563-576
