The images below are captured from the original work, which was installed at The Nottingham Society of Artists as part of my Degree Show, and at Free Range 2012. It uses the slowing of time to create tension. The full video is currently unavailable online, but is available on request.
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Video Installation, 5:34
In order to maintain critical distance and appreciation when viewing nudes in an art context, and regardless of the presence or absence of symbology and convention, we frequently suppress our baser and more instinctive reactions in an effort to form a more cultured interpretation. Yet interpretation of nudes is complicated by innumerable factors, including cultural and societal values, personal and universalised human experiences, issues of representation and objectification, taboo, and personal sexual attitudes. The mixture of these influences—alongside other, less predictable factors—is unique to each spectator, and will evolve over time as he or she is exposed to new experiences of viewing.
In The Object Stares Back, James Elkins asserts that “Seeing is self definition. Objects look back, and their incoming gaze tells me what I am.” In Boundaries II, by unnaturally manipulating the temporality of the transition between dressed female and female nude, I hope to draw attention to the factors which attract us, repel us, and complicate our interpretations.