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ELISHA COX ART
2020-2021
2020-2021: MA Progress
Beginning my Masters in the middle of a pandemic was not exactly how I expected It would begin. However, it has taught me some important values within my practice. It has reminded me of the importance of drawing. No matter what discipline your practice is, drawing should be an important aspect. As it allows us artists to expresses ideas, feelings and concepts without having to complete a finished piece of artwork or sculpture. I think recently I have overlooked the importance of drawing, this is to not say that I have not been drawing, as I have been drawing constantly, sketching ideas but I did not really realize how important drawing is to my practice until the 2nd and 3rd Lock down hit. Much like the past lock downs I have found myself in a situation where I have no space to work physically due to the nature of the materials and my current living space. However, it has had its advantages as I have mentioned above its re-sparked my love for drawing and studying my face and body. Which in return allows me to understand the human body's form and how my fat moves and reacts to pressure. It allows me to understand more where I can improve my artwork so it can represent my concepts surrounding body fat further. Below is a few examples of my current drawings.
The drawing to the left was inspired from my previous series called 'The real life: selfie', (2019) which included multiple drawings and paintings in which I had produced in order to explore how society views the body and face in particular online.
However, it has not always been the situation where I was unable to produce sculptural artworks due to lock down. During the first few months of my Masters course we were allowed into the studio to work so long as we were sticking to the Covid-19 guidelines and were all keeping safe. This was brilliant for me, as due to the first lock down in March 2020 I had not been able to produce any three dimensional artworks until October 2020 when I started the masters course. As you can imagine, I had so many ideas and concepts in which I wanted to explore, therefore I used every second that I could to produce artworks and experiments. Therefore I was able to express myself and learn a lot about my practice in the short amount of time in which we were still able to produce in the studios. Below I will talk about a few of the most important for my development in my practice over the past few months.
'X', 2020
I had the idea to do 'X' while I was doing my BA in Fine Art, however I was deep within exploring with my new hanging sculptures as I felt like they were really helping me develop within my practice. It was not until I started my MA, and realized I did not have the environment to continue as much as I would have liked with my hanging works, when I started to explore how my work could develop on floor based sculptures. It was at this point when structure became an important aspect of my practice. As unlike the hanging sculptures, where gravity would automatically drag them down and form them, the sculptures when displayed on the floor instead needed to be formed and moved in order to create forms. And in doing this I have now realized how important the form of my work is, such as by simply implying the shape of a human can change the view someone may have on my work. (Such as how I implied legs with the wood in the sculpture 'X'. )
Initially I thought of the idea to resemble the idea of cross for no. Such as in society we use a cross to say that something is incorrect or something to be cautious off. So using that concept I thought about having a three dimensional cross to resemble how fat people are viewed mostly by society. As if they are complete failures, are wrong in living in a large body and that everyone else shall avoid becoming fat. I was trying to explore how I could physically show how difficult it is to live within a fat body in the 21st century in a western society.
However, when I began to experiment with adding the flour and polyamide elastane once I had formed the structure I seen a different form in which I intended. I was going to fill the top half of 'X' however lock down began just before I could do so, however, even without the top half, the work brings a sense of the inside and outside of the human body. The wood represents the structure of our bones, and the fabric and flour is the skin and flesh. The weight of the flour forms beautifully alongside the wood, and I am very excited to see where I can take this in the future when I am able to return to a working art studio.
Bra Experiment
Like a lot of my other works, the bra experiment did not turn out how I originally planned it to. The idea was for the experiment to be a hung sculpture, however it turned out to be a worn piece of work. I felt a deflation and an upset as this piece of work was important for my own self development as a person. However, I than remembered I bought the sports bra in my size so that I could possibly use it after without it being a waste of money. Therefore, before I knew it I had the work on myself. This was certainly a new experience for me in which I need to reflect on, however I enjoyed the relation of the work and my fat body. Below are a few examples of photos in which I took when I was wearing the sports bra.
I began with my sculptural experiment based around the female breasts. I myself have struggled a lot with insecurities growing, much like others, and one of the biggest one for me was my breasts. I grew up being told the attributes in which women were meant to have, including what that meant for a women when they gained weight and had a overhanging belly.
When I began to gain weight my belly, thighs and arms grew bigger and saggier, but my breasts did not. I always felt my body wasn't even worth it in the plus size world. As I learnt through cultural influence of the western society that the attractive qualities of a larger women are their large breasts and bottoms. As I neither I felt ugly and unworthy even in the plus size world. It's a issue I have never spoke about before, and have not really took the time before to consider. However, I feel like it's important in the process of accepting and loving my body as it is to be open and understand my body. And in the process I hope I am able to express my feelings that every body is beautiful no matter the size of any feature. A body is a body. And breasts are breasts. Sexualised for a mans arousal, but in reality they are just sacks of fat. Useful in the bodies function as everything is, but still bags of fat attached to a women's body.
Deflating and Expanding
I produced these two experiments to express how it felt to live as a larger individual doing normal things such as looking in the mirror, walking down the street and even eating dinner publicaly. Having multiple versions of yourself being produced in your mind depending on the situation. I did not always dislike my body, I would love my body some days before leaving the house, but peoples comments or looks would change my mood. I'm hoping possibly with these I can try and show more how it is to live in a larger body, continuously questioning yourself how big or small you are that day? Continuously doubting your self worth because of a simple look (which may not even be meant in that way, but I and many other larger women have been conditioned to believe that people look at us and see merely fat bodies, and not a worthy human).
Currently still studying my masters, I am hoping I will be able to add to this content and adjust it around when I have completed and may have more valuable work to my art practice.
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