The influence of Zanele Muholi’s techniques, concepts and subject matter in her “La Rochelle” series and “Miss D'vine” series on my work: “Flowers in (my) hair”
Conceptualization:
Like in Muholi’s La Rochelle series (figs.2, 3, 4), my artwork Flowers in (my) hair (fig.1) tackles gender norms- mainly toxic masculinity . The camel in the image is my representation of man and focuses on changing the idea that to be a man you must be tough. In this artwork I tackle society’s idea of “normal” and try to change their perspectives. This artwork is mainly linked to Zanele Muholi’s La Rochelle series as she explains and depicts how we all hide behind a façade so that we do not threaten others with our true appearances , this is very much how I have depicted my artwork- hiding behind masculinity so that you are not labelled as gay. I have linked Zanele Muholi’s Miss D’vine series to my artwork in the sense that she normalises nudity and femininity amongst men- whilst her work is mainly on transgender men mine focuses purely on the idea that any man might be oppressed by toxic masculinity. In the Miss D’vine series …show more content…
8) I speak about the inner turmoil’s I have had over the last year and the physical and emotional effects it can have on a human mind, body and soul. With a quote by Penny Siopis “Paint acts as flesh: It dries slowly, and is moist underneath for years. Eventually it cracks and wrinkles” I started to think of visuals that visually represented what it looks like to be in pain. The artwork is supposed to make the viewer uncomfortable by seeing the pain and swelling on the body. In Siopis’s Artwork Beast, (Fig. 10) she speaks about a struggle that we normally have against ourselves before anyone else regarding not knowing who we are or what we stand for. This is what I have spoken about in my artwork, having an identity crisis but after a while realising that maybe we don’t actually need all of the answers