Wednesday 7 April 2010

Halfway review

I've been having a think and I've decided to review the dressing table gallery. I have been so pleased with the response I've had from readers of this blog and friends on the web, so thank you so much if you have participated!

The reasoning behind this online interactive project is as follows:

-I've been thinking about creating a new series of work for a while based on illustrating a story through a character's belongings, and I especially want to focus on female and feminine apparel.

-I am also extremely interested in female transformation and artifice, and my work usually takes on a theatrical showman like element, but in this instance I wanted to narrow it down and examine the moment of transformation many women undergo on an everyday basis by focusing on the dressing table.

I've found that combining these two strands of thought into an interactive online gallery has been really helpful in opening up new ideas to me and it has worked on many levels:

-We get a voyeristic snapshot into someone's private world, and lets face it who doesn't enjoy having a good old nosey at other womens belongings! I find it fascinating.



-I intended each photo to act as portrait of each woman's femininty. This would would have happened if some of the dressing tables were used just for make up etc as in the old school vintage photos I posted last week.



-Instead of being strictly feminine, I've found the photo's give a fuller description of each woman's life including the messy and illogical bits! I've found that a bit distracting, but I'm making it work to my advantage by reading further into the images and disecting the story behind them. It's made me think differently about the way modern women face the world in the morning and how complicated our lives are.


Vicki Morris' dressing table; 'My picture is of the nearest thing I have to a dressing table. I actually apply a bit of make-up while I'm sitting on the Tube from a small make-up bag. But this chest of drawers is where I put the things I use to spruce myself up before I leave the house!'

In all so far, the gallery has been really interesting by throwing up unexpected insights, and I've loved getting to know everyone through my favourite girly ritual! Make -up forever!

1 comment:

Kittie Howard said...

You have a lovely blog. Thank you for sharing.