Castle Fine Art Gallery

This piece by James Francis Gill called ‘Liz’ was one of my favorite pieces within the small gallery, that gave me inspiration for one of my experiments on a male model painting males face in sections experiment

This abstract piece got my attention as it reminded me of some ideas I had while watching a music video called ‘somebody that I used to know’ where the two singers section their faces using different colours of paint. within the video the person man is blended into the background as the shapes and colours painted on his face are the same as the colours and shapes as the background so it almost gives a sense of being invisible and that he is lost in the background. To me this is a powerful video as the lyrics in the song represent a love or relationship that has ended and someone that they used to care about becoming a stranger to them, At one point in the video the woman is made to look like she is shouting the lyrics at the man while he stands there with a blank face as if with no energy to say something back so he is forced to listen, the fact that he is blended into the background suggests that he is seen and treated as a nobody and does not have an identity this links into my work, domestic abuse, as it showed the feelings and emotions that a male victim would feel for example a victim of domestic abuse would feel invisible to others as well as to their abuser as they are treated as if they are a punching bag. Also the video can represent how hidden domestic abuse is to the public eye as he is well camouflaged and hidden from sight yet his partner in the video can see him and continues to hurt him as he is blended in with normal surroundings and everyday life people don’t see whats really going on behind the paint giving the allusion that although things look normal it doesn’t mean that it actually is.

music Video ‘somebody that I used to know ‘ clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY

The ‘Liz’ piece by James Francis reminds me of the music video and reminds me of the feeling of suffocation, isolation and feeling invisible. This was due to there being shapes of bright and bold colours done through Screen printing, also known as serigraphy, is a method of creating an image on paper, fabric or some other object by pressing ink through a screen with areas blocked off by a stencil.