D A N I E L L E V I D O N I: October 2011

Monday, October 31, 2011

The F A I L E D knee

This post is in response to my older post entitles 'Developing the L E G' I'll post a link in the comments don't worry x

Lets just say M O U L D I N G the knee in Leather didn't work out to well, the shape was all wrong and the form once made into leather didn't keep the original characteristics of the knee like the plaster mould did.

. . . F A I L . . .

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

F L E S H

Danielle Vidoni©

M O M E N T S . . . . F L E S H

Danielle Vidoni©

The U N D R E S S E D B O D Y

Danielle Vidoni©

Danielle Vidoni©

Two days of painting latex on to the female mannequin and this is the result . . . I'm happy. It's looking R A W and B E A S T like.

The female F O R M

Nude Photography 1850-1980 Edited by Constance Sullivan©

These are M O M E N T S...

The female form at its simplest and most refined state N A T U R A L and U N T O U C H E D. This image feels right, there is no nakedness or accidental exposure these woman are beautifully and naturally N U D E

This is the one image that my current collection of exploratory sculpture and wearable garments are based upon. It is in the capturing of these M O M E N T S that I am U N D R E S S I N G T H E B O D Y

F L E S H again...

Danielle Vidoni©

2 days in the making but we finally finished this lovely top, photos of it on the body will be up soon...

Sunday, October 16, 2011

W E I G H T D I S T R I B U T I O N

A H H H H H H HHH S O S O L A T E ! ! !

Oh gosh, Oh me, Oh my, what am I to do with myself??

T H I S movie was suppose to be put together a L O N G L O N G time ago and I have F I N A L L Y done it!!

It's a movie about the fun we had with the phone in class playing with weigh distribution on the body, videoing how it effects our physical movements as well as our mental attitudes, this is what I came up with, but not without the very A W E S O M E help of the beautiful Eugenie...

Danielle Vidoni©

This next video is a continuation of the above experiment but with the jacket from my N O N - F A B R I C Pilot Project. The jacket I am applying to my body is made from insulating nails strung together on leather and sewn to the skeleton of a jacket.

The video captures me in the process of putting on the jacket and wearing it whilst at the same time avoiding the nails from digging in to the surface of my skin causing marks to appear (of which some are visible on this poor quality video). The video illustrates the struggle I having with the jacket.

...Being the observed is a different experience to being the observer...

Danielle Vidoni©

Developing the L E G

This video illustrated the slow process of wrapping my own leg in plaster to create a mould.

The idea is to capture the M O M E N T of a bent leg.

Danielle Vidoni©

I've been finding it integral to the developmental process of my practice to capture these processes.
In videoing the process I am able to capture the M O M E N T S of which I am being T A M E D by the B E A S T and the B E A S T is T A M I N G me.

F L E S H

'The body is being rethought and reconsidered by artists and writers because it is being reconstructed and reconstituted by scientists and engineers' (The body, Photo Works of the Human Body, William A. Ewing)

The french poet Paul Valéry once said, 'The deepest thing in man is the skin'

Looking closely at the surface can at times tell a longer and deeper story than that of a blank canvas. People are not willing to open up and tell their story but one can gather a history by simply observing the scares, birth marks, wrinkles the imperfections that adorn the surface of the human body.

To have the consciousness to searching in the mirror for a wrinkle or blemish is in its self literal directness and honesty.

I have included a couple of images that are in my folio which to me represent the idea of imperfection/perfection in flesh. They are all vastly visually detached yet are all rooted in origin being that of the human form.

John Coplans

Self Portrait, 1984

Robert Davies

ear 1 1992

Danielle Vidoni©

R A W flesh made from brush latex

This was a cast made from the female form I made out of plaster cast earlier in the semester. In one of my earlier blog entries Peeling of the L A T E X you can actually see the process of peeling the latex 'flesh' from the mould.

Right now the latex reminds me of paper...

Perhaps in a different context its tactile fleshiness might be visually portrayed more accurately.

F L E S H The S U T U R E W O U N D

Danielle Vidoni©

These two images above highlight this image of surface scaring and imperfection, that are not always imperfections but rather areas of interest and beauty, they are integral features that often tell a story or reveal a secret. The top image is sourced from a medical website www.mediligence.com and the one beneath is a cropped close up of my moulded bra cup, they both have a visual closeness yet are so radically different. I didnt actually make the connection between my own bra cup and the suture wound on flesh till sometime after sewing the cup up.

A scar can be seen as an 'individuals geography' or as a 'map of the life, rather than as a disfigurement' (Caroline Evans in Fashion At The Edge)

Sean Ellis, Tissue: A Portfolio of Scars, The Face 1997

Monday, October 3, 2011

U N D R E S S I N G the hand

... T H E M A T E R I A L I T Y O F H E A V I N E S S ...

A hand that I made out of the collection ‘U N D R E S S I N G T H E B O D Y’

all of charlottes finger prints were left in the hand and as you can see from the image bellow the detail in which i was able to capture the hand before undressing it.

latex may not have had a previous life like leather and there for there is not as much meaning behind giving the materiality of latex new life but there is no reason why we can give this previously non living thing new life. It is in giving life to the hand that creates a 'M O M E N T' where 'an I M P R I N T is left by a M O T I O N' made by a 'H E A V Y M O T I O N' as well as the long process of painting latex upon the hand.

A 'M O M E N T' is created through the

'C O M P R E S S I O N' of an object and in this case it is the human hand.

... U N D R E S S I N G T H E H A N D ...

Danielle Vidoni©

I find it partially beautiful how the hand sits when no longer being worn, some but not all of the shape is gone.

Danielle Vidoni©

R A W

Danielle Vidoni©

M O V I E M O V I E M O V I E M O V I E T I M E S ...

As you can see this movie is entitled 'R A W', at the beginning of the semester I created a mould of the female body, photos were not enough to do it justice, every surface was so vastly varied yet beautiful to look at, the surface texture was so rich with variations which also enhanced the shape. To fully appreciate the mould you had to slowly absorb it in a 3D, that is why I found this short stop motion film to be effective in communicating the 'R A W ness' that is the human body.

Capturing the M O M E N T

Image - Alexander McQueen, Untitled, Spring-Summer 1998. Photographed Chris Moore.

!Beautiful!

I was captivated when I fist saw this image as I was flicking through my newly purchased book 'Fashion at the edge'.

Ahh McQueen you've done it again...

The cloth clinging to her slender frame resembles a second skin, unlike previously before the cloth is able to mould to the form beneath and take upon its shape. It is in these precious moments before the cloth begins to dry that you are able to visually capture these 'M O M E N T S' of which are occurring through the 'H E A V Y' -ness of the body beneath.

The fabric clings, it cocoons, the body finds itself wrapped in a second skin. The 'M O M E N T' is the revelation it is the undressing of the body which occurs with the translucency of the cloth upon the flesh which occurs through the process of wetting.

Project Response 'R A W' ... a reflection

Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, however this statement invites much

interpretation. No one person thinks the same and it is this characteristic of human

nature that invites such interpretation. The most primitive and natural form of beauty is the form in its most untouched state, that being, as a nude. I want to capture the 'M O M E N T' of being nude. These nude moments will be visually 'R A W' but as truthful to the female form as possible.

... To Be N U D E ...

“To be naked is to be ones self. To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognised for ones self. A naked body has to be seen as an object in order to become a nude. (The sight of it as an object stimulates the use of it as an object.) Nakedness

reveals itself. Nudity is placed on display” (Berger, Ways of Seeing). This idea of being ‘nude’ is the starting point of my research and exploration.
Berger and several other authors in the book In the book Ways of Seeing John, suggest…“To be naked is to be without disguise. To be on display is to have the surface of one’s own skin, the hairs of one’s own body,turned into a disguise, which, in that situation, can never be discarded. The nude is condemned to never being naked. Nudity is a form of dress” in order to be nude though I have to undress the female form this involves covering the form in 'R A W' skin like material so that I am able to take away so that the extracted form is able to exist as the nude.

'R A W' not only relates to the nude form but can also lend itself to the materials used to communicate the idea, my chosen materials have been predominately latex and leather, both visually and physically 'R A W'. Leather lends itself to this idea of being harsh, it is viewed as cruel, the inhumane killing of an animal for its skin, however I am not here to get into a debate about what is ethically right or wrong im only discussing my processes and idea development.

... N E W L I F E through R E S P E C T ...
... and U N D E R S T A N D I N G ...

Even though leather is from the hide of a dead animal I still view it as living. You hold this piece of flesh in your hand and you understand that it has previously come from a living form, you only have to look at the surface texture, the small nicks the imperfections and discolouring to understand what you are about to bring life back into this piece of skin that has already lived and died, it has already had a story to tell and your about to create a new story for it. This is where the notion of respect comes into play. The respect I speak of is the respect found in understanding the 'other' and in this case it is the leather (veggie tan) before trying to change it. Alexander McQueen once said, "You have to know the rules before you can break them", there is a certain amount of naivety needed but the rest is skill though understanding.

Excuse the randomness and non complacency of some on my sentences, I tend to need to just pop sentences in as they appear in my mind. May not be the best way roll but welcome to my mind a jamle of jamborees and jumbles jam packed in at much personal dissatisfaction and frustration!

Fabrication always is chosen on its second skin like appearance and texture/hand.

The essence of the nude is in the simplicity of form

The B R I E F

THE MATERIALITY OF HEAVINESS

SEEING HEAVINESS AS BEASTLY

TAMING BEASTLY MATERIALS

BEING TAMED BY BEASTLY MATERIALS

A movie I made to accompany my project response speech in class illustrates the main points of the brief, I feel as perhaps that I don't reference the brief enough throughout my processes. The brief influenced my initial thought process and it was from these ideas that I move on, not disregarding them but rather using them as a catalyst, there constantly in my mind but they no longer inform decisions I have moved on.

... T H E M A T E R I A L I T Y O F H E A V I N E S S ...

This is approached through materials, that are not necessary physically heavy but rather are heavy in process, such as the time consuming process of applying latex to a mould, or the physical heaviness needed to mould leather and time needed for that process to be complete.

... M O V I E ...

... An 'I M P R I N T' is left by a 'M O T I O N' ...

It is in this 'H E A V Y M O T I O N' that a 'M O M E N T' is created through the

'C O M P R E S S I O N' of a form, through this process the female form is captured in its 'R A W est' form, that being the nude.

This short movie I made attempts as illustrating how the notion of a 'H E A V Y'

'M O T I O N' creates a 'R A W M O M E N T'

COMPRESSION

LABOURING

MOMENT

MOTION

HEAVY

RAW

... S E E I N G H E A V I N E S S A S B E A S T L Y ...

Seeing these materials as beastly through lack of understanding and respect

... T A M I N G B E A S T L Y M A T E R I A L S ...

This is achieved through respecting and understanding a material. The respect I speak of is the respect found in understanding the 'other' and in this case it is leather (veggie tan) before trying to change it.

Even though leather is from the hide of a dead animal it should still be viewed as living it is no less important because it does no longer posses. You hold this piece of flesh in your hand and you understand that it has previously come from a living form, to rework is to regenerate, bring life back to a previously lifeless form.

... B E I N G T A M E D B Y B E A S T L Y M A T E R I A L S ...

It is the respect that you embody; understanding that eventuates in to learned skill

which is in turn the taming of and being tamed by the 'B E A S T'