Within this project, I initially wanted to portray the figurative boundaries within intimacy. Looking into the psychoanalytic background behind our “setting of boundaries” and portray this in a series of abstract imagery be it, photography or film; opening a dialogue for the viewers to critically analyse and question the boundaries set within the couple displayed. However, after a high study of prolific artists and experimentation with surveillance photography, the emergence of a new idea came about. Inspired by the spontaneity of intimate contemporary photography art, and intrigued by the spur of the gritty realism of xerox printing, I created an installation piece set to expose the destructive sexual desire of ‘voyuering’.
At the start of my project, I tried to grasp the reasons why some relationships, -or single persons’- may or may not have boundaries set for physical interactions. The study first led me down the path of bodily autonomy and bodily integrity, which mainly focused on the rights of a human being in accordance with their body. This shed light on a set of boundaries, in particular, religious boundaries which really sparked my interest in retrospect of virginity, celibacy and marital status.
Serendipitously, I found overlapping paintings by Korean Artist, Ho Ryan Lee, that encouraged me to think about imagery as a medium for my project, as well as, introducing me to the widely cinematic term, the “male gaze”. His realistic renditions reminded me of double exposure photographs, exuding a slow-motion sensuality and an illustrative daydream of an adolescent mind. There was something almost voyeuristic, while simultaneously celebratory, about the way in which the female body was depicted. It almost seemed reflective to the yearning qualities present in the Christian faith; portraying this boundary line between wanting more and actually pursuing.
This significant find acted as a springboard within my group tutorials, encouraging a deeper discussion of ideas and allowing vast recommendations of expressive artists like Jenny Saville and Egon Schiele whose works’ focus on the portrayal of nudity and the human body. Hereafter, I decided to look into the different types of intimacy and settled on physical intimacy as the mode in which I wanted to depict.
This significant find acted as a springboard within my group tutorials, encouraging a deeper discussion of ideas and allowing vast recommendations of expressive artists like Jenny Saville and Egon Schiele whose works’ focus on the portrayal of nudity and the human body. Hereafter, I decided to look into the different types of intimacy and settled on physical intimacy as the mode in which I wanted to depict.
I went online and read up on artists like Bianka Schumann, Peter Mclean, Jonh Coplans and Cathy Riley, finding inspiration within their black and white works to display private moments; revealing the origins and manifestations of the subject’s intimate lives in its literal attributes. Interestingly, at the same time, I was in the midst of my film, analogue and printing workshops, which awarded me with the new skills and ideas that I later chose to implement within my project: The film workshop enabled a consideration of moving pictures to create an impactful and evasive piece of work, rather than one that was flat and aesthetically pleasing. The print workshop, alongside the advice of Laura, introduced me to xerox printing to transfer images in a 1940s gritty style. While the analogue and darkroom workshop made me known with the olden day methods of photography.
Collectively they ignited my interest in photography and like film artists Ben Lamberty and Taita Pilevera I wanted to make public a private engagement. Consequently, voyeurism was reintroduced to me, yet in more detail through a 405 session where artworks from Sophie Howarth and Shizuoka Yokomizo were exhibited in Tate’s Summer 2010 issue “Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera”. I liked the subjectivity as well as the boldness of exploitative voyeurism works and the way in which it breaks the boundaries of intimacy between individuals. I read up on artists who specifically worked on voyeuristic related pieces as well as intimate photographers Nan Goldin, Nobuyoshi Araki, Larry Clark, and Jack Pierson, as a starting point to think about how intimate photography is structured, as well, to think about how it borrows and redirects the language of domestic photography for public display.
Motivated by their technical shortcomings and “mistakes”: out -of-kilter framing, blur, uneven flashlight etc. I adopted their seemingly unskilled method, sexually explicit charge, and predatory fluidity and implemented them into my voyeuristic studies in terms of composition and spontaneity. After a few trials and discussing them with my tutors I started to think of how to display them in a way that will be impactful. Near the final week of the first term, I spoke with Martin and was inspired to make an interactive installation piece in which my images would be showcased. The idea grew from a flat-faced way of viewing to one that implied continuos, obtrusive cycle. Using photography as the means by which the voyeuristic gaze became a shared experience. While at the same breadth, exposing the voyeur for the photographer/artist.
I situated three doors to form a triangle. Encouraging a walk around the space, and further inviting the viewers with the abnormal presence of a door viewer. Each door represented a room considered private (bedroom, bathroom, living room), publicising a private moment for the viewer to see- which is a boundary in itself. As well as, exposing the voyeur in a public space. The door viewers are installed, contrary to its original purpose. Instead of looking from the inside out, as the subject to the outside world, the viewers become the voyeurs and look from the outside in, into the private domestic life of a couple and their sexual experiences.
I situated three doors to form a triangle. Encouraging a walk around the space, and further inviting the viewers with the abnormal presence of a door viewer. Each door represented a room considered private (bedroom, bathroom, living room), publicising a private moment for the viewer to see- which is a boundary in itself. As well as, exposing the voyeur in a public space. The door viewers are installed, contrary to its original purpose. Instead of looking from the inside out, as the subject to the outside world, the viewers become the voyeurs and look from the outside in, into the private domestic life of a couple and their sexual experiences.
These single snapshots represent the spontaneity of voyeurism, as well as the positioning of its voyeurs in correlation with their subject. The possible pornographic and exploitative aspects of ‘voyeuring’ invite a moral criticism of one’s observation, as well as one of their motivations from looking, rather than the moral criticism of the photographer.