I have had covid this week so I sadly have not been able to go in the project room this week or attend class. This week has ben a time for reflection and consolidation; I was able to get some of my ideas out of the way to peel back the layers of what my final product for the Takeover might be.
I kept moving my body this week, even though I felt so confined due to being in isolation for ten days.
Adrian Piper dancing in the centre of Berlin in 2007. This performance by the artist is just pure joy. Piper’s work really inspires me as she is so uninhibited as an artist; she is so purely creative.
I think writing and poetry is something that I just can’t get away from in my works. I keep circling back around to writing what I am feeling. I think using your words as a women against the male gaze is powerful, as we are taught to be silent. I did the above experiment in the bath, I wrote out my frustration and confusion against the patriarchy in pink pen then I drowned it in the water. Being in the bath always feels so ritualistic, as if I am washing away the layers of eyes that are constantly on me. Drowning this piece of paper in my bath was cathartic.
After my meeting with Miranda, I want to continue on making the poetry/photo montages that I made last week as I feel this has been the most natural and fulfilling project I have done so far. The poetry montages allow me to incorporate my confusion around the topic of the male gaze by speaking on the topic but not solving any issues of the problem. It also allows me to use my words against the patriarchy, which represents for me a grasping of control and allows me to express more deeply my internalised struggle with these issues.