today I have been experimenting with projecting words onto faces and other materials, to capture images that express the reality of domestic abuse with a clear picture of what words can be related with the subjects.
This image is one of my favourite because of the way I placed the writing so that the words ‘abuse’ in bold goes across the mouth area suggesting to the viewer that they don’t have a voice in the relationship and that they are being controlled and restricted by their partner or self-esteem almost as if the word ‘abuse’ is representing tape over their mouth and gives the allusion that their mouth is covered even though it is not it is only words projected onto it however by doing this it creates the sense of suffocation and being unable to talk, drawing the viewer to the mouth area which is also what is used through Lulu Guinness who also draws attention to the mouth area e.g. the lips I liked the idea that she used a particular area of the face to create handbags and other items as it could represent so much with being so simple. as the way I have First I decided to project the words onto a manikins face to create a an non characteristic approach giving the face no identity, the reason for this is that I wanted to see and feel the effect of it not being an actual persons face to give the allusion that this could be anyone of any gender or age, whereas if this was a womans face I think men would find it hard to relate to the piece or would feel that it is not expressing who domestic abuse effects appropriately or fairly when men are abused by women too. this could also make a man viewing the piece feel uncomfortable and judged when looking at it as if the piece of art is trying to portray men as the abusive sex however this is not my aim therefore I have chose to experiment on a manikin. also I feel that when experimenting with the projectors distance and type of face its being projecting on I realised that when being projected onto the manikin the words are a lot clearer and easier to read wo when they are projected on a real face as shown below. I think it has came out clearer because the face is all one colour which is a light cream/white colour.
I then projected the words onto a female model to create more of a personal effect I tried multiple arrangements with where the words were projected as well as the directions the person was facing this was to explore with what to me created the best image which was balanced between being personal and creating the right connection between the viewer and person in the image. personally I found that when the model made eye contact at the camera and looked directly into the lens it created a strong and emotional image as most people see the eyes as looking into the soul and seeing true emotion through them, I also believe that you make a much stronger connection with people by looking at/into their eyes as it often helps to tell a story.
once typing up words that I personally thought represented the emotions of a victim of domestic abuse using the primary research into articles and other resources I then arranged them in a collage printed it on paper then copied it onto a sheet of plastic, this means that the face behind the projection comes through between the words and the two combine.
FMP Domestic Violence 