ELISHA COX ART
'UPDATED',(2019)
With such a technological name you could assume ‘Updated’ (Elisha Cox, 2019) was also based on technology’s influence on the female body in the 21st century, however, this perception is wrong. There is an ever-growing expectation of women, which alters depending on what society deems best at the time. Tovar explains, “If we all miraculously became our doctor- recommended BMI overnight, we would awake the following day to find that the goal post had moved because control is the ultimate purpose of diet culture and fatphobia” (Tovar, 2018 Pg. 29). As Tovar states there is an ever-growing need to fit in with social ideals. I deliberately decided on the name ‘Updated’ to make the viewers understand how I felt as if I needed to be the newest ‘updated’ version of myself every month to be accepted. Being abroad at the time I relied on social media and technology a lot to communicate with those who were not near, I feel like this may have influenced the way I thought within my practice
without notice. Until the process of hanging ‘Updated’ I did not realize the connection between all my artworks was not in fact focused purely on society’s manipulation through technology, however more so about my feelings in response to my own figure within a technological lens. It was not until that point I realized I was being taught the wrong views on fat on the body. I was taught that fat was never something which was deemed to be good, nor worthy of the spotlight, however, why is that? “Even if we disagree, we do not challenge or criticize a conviction, but believe that each person has the right to make their own decisions. But we tend to forget that these beliefs are a product of social pressures and expectations and are necessarily scared” (Berger. 2008, Pg. 47).
As Berger states above we all know that we have the freedoms to believe what we like, however, we seem to comply with the rule’s society puts in place to control our beliefs and freedoms about our own and other’s bodies, potentially because we feel like we would be otherwise rejected. I believe conformity is necessary for society to continue to control us, however, if we stand up for what we believe in there is a way to change our society and its social rules. I believe that I related the works to similar topics, such as social media’s effects, to hide the truth that I was beginning to talk about fat within our society, which was not something which is seen as acceptable, as fat is something to be hidden. By hanging the work in the most open space in the gallery, at eye level, I was able to put the fat on show. Emphasizing the need for fat talk to be generalized and more widely accepted.
‘Updated’ (Elisha Cox, 2019) involved three sculptural pieces suspended by bungee cord in an
open space (see Figure above). The work was based on my body in relation to my surroundings, as the gallery in which we exhibited the work in was in the city centre, therefore the work was surrounded by clothes shops, which do not hold my size. Kleinhans, in an interview with me in January 2020, states, “There are still ‘plus-size’ clothing stores because main retailers refuse to make extended sizes. The list goes on. These are small, constant reminders that the world we live in is not made for any group that is considered ‘other’”. As Kleinhans stated above, we simply do not fit in with our ‘normal’ society, we are made to feel like we are massive just because we have different body shapes to the ideal. There is no such thing as minus clothes range for those who are underweight, yet those who are bigger get subjected to being ‘plus-size’. I chose to work around these issues of feeling massive in a ‘normal’ world.
I had chosen to use irregular castoff pieces of industrial foam which I folded and rolled into bundles, held together by fishing line. Where the fishing wire presses into the foam it creates furrow and bulges reminiscent of flesh being held together in tight clothing. I use materials to play with ideas of comfortability and social pressure. If there is a symbolic element in my work then it is in these pressure points that are created by near transparency of the fishing wire suggesting that what is not seen or is physically present, doesn't necessarily mean that does not exist. In fact, I would suggest that what is not readily visible enters our lives much more forcefully in ways that we often are unaware of.