THE BRIEF -
In this project I’ve been asked to
create a montage or collage with a political message. about a current issue or something that you feel strongly about.
Collecting images (note-copyright) and a new meaning from them in order to express the idea.
Be imaginative, playful, provocative or humourous.
working with layers; exploring a variety of selection tools
resizing and adjusting the contrast, colour and balance of your images.
reflect on the original meaning of the images and your subsequent collage.
Write a short evaluative statement.
CHOOSING A TOPIC
I chose to express my project about Violence against Women.
Its a very important topic in my eyes, and it seems like it doesn’t get enough exposure. Now, after the #MeToo revolution there's more awareness about it, but still women are getting assaulted or even murdered in the world on a daily basis.
RESEARCH
I started exploring and researching about Violence against women -
Violence against women (VAW), also known as gender-based violence[1] and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV)[2] are violent acts primarily or exclusively committed against women and girls. Often considered a form of hate crime,[3] this type of violence is gender-based, meaning that the acts of violence are committed against women and girls expressly because they are female.
Key facts:
Violence against women – particularly intimate partner violence and sexual violence – is a major public health problem and a violation of women's human rights.
Global estimates published by WHO indicate that about 1 in 3 (35%) of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime.
Most of this violence is intimate partner violence. Worldwide, almost one third (30%) of women who have been in a relationship report that they have experienced some form of physical and/or sexual violence by their intimate partner in their lifetime.
Globally, as many as 38% of murders of women are committed by a male intimate partner.
Violence can negatively affect women’s physical, mental, sexual, and reproductive health, and may increase the risk of acquiring HIV in some settings.
Men are more likely to perpetrate violence if they have low education, a history of child maltreatment, exposure to domestic violence against their mothers, harmful use of alcohol, unequal gender norms including attitudes accepting of violence, and a sense of entitlement over women.
Women are more likely to experience intimate partner violence if they have low education, exposure to mothers being abused by a partner, abuse during childhood, and attitudes accepting violence, male privilege, and women’s subordinate status.
There is evidence that advocacy and empowerment counselling interventions, as well as home visitation are promising in preventing or reducing intimate partner violence against women.
Situations of conflict, post conflict and displacement may exacerbate existing violence, such as by intimate partners, as well as and non-partner sexual violence, and may also lead to new forms of violence against women.
Violence Against Women (VAW) peer-reviewed and published monthly, is an international, interdisciplinary journal dedicated to the publication of research and information on all aspects of the problem of violence against women. VAW assumes a broad definition of violence; topics to be covered include, but are not limited to, domestic violence, sexual assault, incest, sexual harassment, female infantcide, female circumcision, and female sexual slavery.
In my own country, there were 25 women murdered in 2018. My sister started a non
profit organization to fight violence against women and support sexual assaulted
women.
MIND MAPPING
I started mind-mapping about Violence against women -
INSPIRATION
Then I started checking some inspiration about political statements in art
POLITICAL STATEMENT RESEARCH
I read some interesting articles about political statements in art
My sister, which is very immersed with art and with political statements, and as mentioned above in this topic specifically, advised me to check a few artists and inspirational sources.
The first one is Marina Abramovic’
according to Wikipedia -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Abramović
“Marina Abramović (Serbian Cyrillic: Марина Абрамовић, pronounced [marǐːna abrǎːmoʋitɕ]; born November 30, 1946) is a Serbian performance artist, writer and art film director and producer.[1] Her work explores body art, endurance art and feminist art, the relationship between performer and audience, the limits of the body, and the possibilities of the mind.”
Watching this TED talk of her was touching me to tears, She is a political and social artist as her art performances include the viewers as a part of the performance, and put light on their fears. It was also a good example of violence in humankind and against women in particular.
More than that she was attacked in one of her exhibitions by a male.
another interesting article
Second, are the Guerrilla Girls
according to Wikipedia -
“Guerrilla Girls is an anonymous group of feminist, female artists devoted to fighting sexism and racism within the art world.[1] The group formed in New York City in 1985 with the mission of bringing gender and racial inequality into focus within the greater arts community.”
on this interview they are talking about their fight for equality of women in art and also in other fields in life.
The third one is Judy Chicago,
according to Wikipedia
“Judy Chicago (born Judith Sylvia Cohen; July 20, 1939) is an American feminist artist, art educator,[3] and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces about birth and creation images, which examine the role of women in history and culture.”
http://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/42247/1/judy-chicago-sacred-feminine-atmospheres-nina-johnson-miami-new-york
In this inspiring feminist interview, she says
“As long as we envision God in male form, women will never be equal. We need a God figure beyond gender so that both men and women can see themselves in the Godhead. My particular belief system sees the miracle of life as God, thus revealing the beauty of the ‘atmosphere’ is a way of manifesting the sacred.”
PHOTOMONTAGES RESEARCH
Then I collected inspiration in regards to collages and Photomontages
FEMININITY RESEARCH
and also inspiring art regarding to Femininity.
I had 2 ideas in mind so I started sketching.
For the first design, I wanted to emphasize the ruthlessness of rape, presenting the raper as a scary known character, and the woman as a goddess. I wanted to make God as a woman like Judy Chicago was saying. Then raping god is obscure, and breaking the biggest Taboo.
also to shock the viewer I want to create a separation of heaven and hell, while the scary character, which I have in mind King Kong, represents the “monkey mind”, the things we do as humans without thinking about - raping god in hell. while the society stands on a cloud in heaven above.
The second idea was presenting women as a catch in the butcher, which is usually referred to how men look at women, as a catch or meat. From just “catching a chicken” to being violent towards.
So I want to have women figures hang up from their legs up in the window of a butcher.
Then I want to call for action, to stop this horror, and have a sign on the door saying “Permanently Closed”.
THE MALE GAZE
In order to understand more why women are violated by men, I wanted to delve more into the “Male Gaze and how women are being observed by men’s eye. I started reading in wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male_gaze
about the background and concept of it, first presented and explained by Laura Mulvey (a British feminist film theorist).
“Two forms of the male gaze are based upon the Freudian concept of scopophilia, the love of looking, the 'pleasure that is linked to sexual attraction (voyeurism in extremis) and [the] scopophilic pleasure that is linked to narcissistic identification (the introjection of ideal egos)'; and show how women have been forced to view the cinema from the perspectives (sexual, aesthetic, cultural) of the male gaze. In such cinematic representations, the male gaze denies the female's agency and human identity, thus dehumanizing a woman to the status of an object to be considered for her beauty, physique, and sex appeal, as defined in the male sexual fantasy of a movie.”
an interesting ted talk about the image of women in comparison to men in the media
FIRST DESIGN - HEAVEN AND HELL
I was looking for other images of scary males but King Kong still was the best fitting in my eyes.
Image of King Kong
When I was looking for Goddess images I found this horrible article that justifis the male gaze and the way women are violated in the world.
I wanted initially to use the birth of venus by Bottichellie but thought it would be hard to rotate her to lay almost on her back, so I collected few other images just in case.
All sources and links written below the photos
I was looking for photos of clouds, lava background, and people to be at the top.
IN THE PROCESS
I was resizing all the images. I had to rotate Venus and duplicate her and place it in layers in order to have one leg of hers behind King Kong and the other in front. I also had to use the lasso tool and eraser in order to make transparent backgrounds and so all the photos will go along together.
I was also adjusting the contrast, color, and balance of the blue sky and cloud background.
FINAL DESIGN
Reflection and evaluation of images and collage -
King King is a very scary image, as I mentioned above I wanted to use a scary known cartoon or character in order to use him as a metaphor for how scary is rape. in a way, the monkey represents the "monkey mind" - what we do without being present and what our anomaly actions are.
Venus is a beautiful goddess, some would refer to her as the representation of beauty. she is so gentle and so pure, and placing King kong as "raping" her is a very provocative message.
The lava in the background supposed to represents hell, as how bad is rape and how horrible, also in most of peoples mind hell resemble with fire or lava. The explosion of the lava is also very powerful to describe how harsh is this act of rape.
The cloud and the blue background on the top represent heaven and in a way also the illusion. Clouds are resembled with illusion "your head in the clouds" and heaven also is represented as somewhere up in the sky above the clouds.
Having the group of people - which are also all men, standing in illuminable heaven, standing with their back towards the viewer is to represent the patriarchal society ignoring rape and all sexual assault.
SECOND DESIGN
I started working on my second idea
I looked for photos for the butcher, the wall of the butcher building, a glass window, and some girls hanging upside down.
I placed it on the photoshop, but it wasn’t quite working for me...
So I decided to leave it.
COPYRIGHTS AND SOURCES -
brick wall
https://www.rawpixel.com/image/93005/brick-wall-background
women hanged
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/372180356696422431/
butcher sign
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/492933121686529273/
THIRD DESIGN
Since the second design wasn't working for me, I was trying to think about a positive clever way rather then a provocative one this time.
From my research arise lots of feminine strong statements like “rapers rape people not outfits” or “my body my bussiness” so I was thinking to take a female figure and write on it “Don’t touch me” to encourage women to not agree with any sexual assault or hurrasment.
The problem in our society is not only men, is women too.
We are so socially structured, from generations and generations ago, that - as Judy Chicago described, only after she was already a famous artist, there was this one project (with colorful fireworks) she did that set her free from patriarchy. As well as the TED talk with Marina Abramovic’ saying the women told the men what to do to her. Another example is the whole TED talk about “the female gaze” (mentioned above) how female are actually the consumer of this violent way of looking at women.
I was looking for a female icon who represents something "sexy" in the world eyes, as a contradict of the old saying "if you will wear revealing clothing you will get raped" - my aim was to make a statement "I might be sexy and inviting but it doesn't mean you can touch me" and also "I am a strong women and even if you try hard you cant touch me".
“I never quite understood it, this sex symbol. I always thought symbols were those things you clash together! That’s the trouble, a sex symbol becomes a thing. I just hate to be a thing. But if I’m going to be a symbol of something I’d rather have it sex than some other things they’ve got symbols of.”—Marilyn Monroe in an interview for Life, 1962
Taken from this article
https://www.artsandcollections.com/article/marilyn-monroe-possessions-of-a-sex-symbol/
I found this photo of Merilyn and I liked the fact she is sitting on the wall with the baseball stick above the boys.
I still didn't have a specific idea, but I was thinking to place Marilyn on a tall mountain, between the clouds and have other men down below, in the desert, trying to reach to her.
The clouds and mountains with snow represents fresh and pure, while desert is a "dead" place.
I started sketching -
INSERT SkETchING HERE >>
I was looking for photos for mountains and found this one that I liked
Then photos of clouds
photos of desert
all sources mentioned with photos
TEXT - cant, touch, me
all sources mentioned with photos
IN THE PROCESS
I placed it on photoshop. I tried different desert photos, and found the one I liked the most.
I was resizing the images, adjusting the contrast, colour and balance of the desert background.
I also had to use the lasso tool and eraser in order to make transparent backgrounds and the all the photos will go along together.
FINAL DESIGN
Reflection and evaluation about images and collage -
This time I chose to be more playful and humorous.
Marylin Monroe represents in the world a sex icon, some people even described her as "stupid" or "weak"... "not a good actress".. "only sexy"... etc. I wanted to show first how women are being objectified as something not more than something, and moreover - as sexual objects.
I wanted to take this model that people have in their minds and place her with a baseball stick as a strong woman who encourages other women to be strong and break that phenomenon.
Mountains, snow, and clouds represent usually purity, height, prestige, majesty, god.. and therefore I placed Marilyn on top of the snowing mountain between the clouds - "above men".
Desert represents something dead, something that is too hot and nothing can grow there.
The two men are trying together to reach to the woman, and they also wear masks that refers to war or a fear of being attacked. They are also in black and white which increases the old patriarchal world and concepts. Even together they cannot reach the woman what make her even stronger.
Also, I thought it could be another variation of "we can do it"
REFLECTION
This task, again, was really educative for me. I'm not so into making photomontages, so it was defintaly urging me to get outside the box and my comfort zone, and I actually realizes I like it. It was fun to make a statment and really think through how to put all the peices togehter, aspecially as a political message.
I also learnt better how to use the photoshop tools in order to mix media together and I really feel like I managed to refine my working skills.