Collage

Memories, Constructed Memories & Imagination

*Weekly Project*

Whilst flicking through magazines in search of images that interested me for this project and I found myself recalling memories and going in and out of day dreams. This led me to exploring the idea of memories, constructed memories and what makes a person. The memories are cut out to be in the shape of what is going inside of her head. In addition, I kept the background simple and black. This is because when I reminisce on memories, I often zone out of everything else around me and in my head, focusing on this one thought. Furthermore, I wanted the focus of the viewer to be purely on whats inside her head and not around her.

The collage is of a woman who's eyes are closed as she is in deep thought recalling memories of her past but is also imagining her future. Her head is cut in to 5 sections, each showing different memories and thoughts. The bottom section depicts an early childhood memory of her and other children playing outside in the snow. Often, I find my self constructing or changing memories through out time until I form something that never happened. I wanted to find a way to reflect this but was not sure how to. Instead I just placed the memories in order; the furthest ones away from her actual mind. I also wanted to project the idea of people only remembering key snippets of memories. The bits that stand out or mean the most to them. This is demonstrated in the image of the next memory which is of candle flames from a birthday.

The next section is where she begins to fantasise what her wedding will be like. This image is in the section of her eyes as that is what she is hoping would be next stage in her life, in the near future. After is of an image of her as an older lady. The last image is of her recalling her whole life and her happiest memories as she imagine her self to be old. 

MORE COLLAGES...

Fish Out of Water, Humans Out of Air

Idea that humans are wrecking the sea and eventually all sea life will be destroyed if we don't start to take care of the issue now. All that will be left in the sea is what people have left behind. This is represented through swapping the fish and man in and out of water And by having the fish dangling above him. Furthermore, it can also be read as the man has gone in to the sea to see fishes and all the coral reefs but there are none there so his eyes are above the surface looking up at them.

Mother Nature

When i came across this image of this ladies body, I was so amazed with how abstract people can make their bodies, to the point where it doesn't even look like a body. I though that this was really refreshing as after a while flicking through magazines it became even more clear to me that women are sexualised and are used to promote whatever brand. In addition, there are such stereotypes on how a body should look and be photographed in order to be 'desirable'. This is to be extremely slim with a big bust and to look long and slender. I felt like this distorted body felt more natural than everything else I had saw in the magazines. This then led me to link the body to nature and mother nature. I had the idea of foliage sprouting from the top half of the body to show the we need to get rid of these ideals and remember that the body is natural. I wanted to take this piece further and put roots coming out from the ripped pieces from her thighs but could not find any that looked right. 

 Slabs 

I previously made this collage but felt like it was relevant in terms as the collage above. As mentioned before, women in magazines are depicted to be eye candy and all have a similar body types. In this particular image where the bodies came from, it depicted women waking in their underwear down the streets of LA and had men gawking at them. This was all to sell some shoes. What women in underwear have to do with shoes, I have no clue. For me it felt like hey were slabs of meat. I tried to represent this by cutting their limbs up and using colour to highlight the insides of them. This shows that companies see them purely as whats on the outside.