Art portfolio

Art Portfolio

My artworks revolve around the theme of gender and identity. As an artist, I like to explore the identities of myself and others using different media such as fashion and photography. With different influences like Cindy Sherman and Alexander McQueen, I am able to find my design aesthetic as an artist and a fashion designer. My fashion designs have are heavily influenced by the Edwardian and Victorian time period. This allows me to combine these historical influences with modern silhouettes, which enables me to seek for my identity as a designer and an artist.

Interpretation This photograph was inspired by the works of Cindy Sherman. Sherman uses the media photography to explore femininity and the female identity in society. I used her as an inspiration to create a set of photos that explored the different identities of the roles I have performed as. By stepping into their shoes, this experience allowed me to explore identities of different people as I put on the outfits and become one of them.

Description

In this series of photographs, I posed as different personas. I gave each of my characters a story and in this photograph, I was posed as a rape victim. Using Photoshop, I added in different effects like covering the floor with green grass like material just to match with Cindy Sherman’s original photo as this whole series was inspired from her unique style. I created this character from head to toe. I chose the wig and also did my own makeup. It was a huge challenge as it was my first time creating a persona but I managed to pull through and produced this photograph. This is one of my favorite photographs as it reflects on one of the most serious issues that affect women today: Rape. The meaning of this art piece is to show people the different identities different females play in the current modern society, with different roles, there are different problems and rape is a serious one in this society.

Description

In this photograph, I have created a different persona. Comparing this photograph with the last one, this character is more bourgeoisies.

The costume I was wearing was also hand made by me, with gold satin and black lace. I chose the coloring theme of gold, white and black because I believe it exudes a more sophisticated look for the photograph in general. With the makeup and the hair, this persona is shown as polished and refined. She is one of the characters I have played in my years of acting in dramas. I used Photoshop to correct the colour of this photograph, as the picture was not as bright. In the photograph below, I had to edit in the background, as the set up was not there when I took the photograph. I took the photograph with a white background then soon I edited the white background out and place it onto the circus themed backdrop. This illustrates a character that I played. She is a character from another time period; she is from the Edwardian era. She is the wife of a circus master who abused her. I created photograph not only to explore these personas deeply but also to raise awareness to violence and abusive relationships currently happening in the society to different females.

Interpretation

Plastic surgery is trending all over the world nowadays and people have been changing their looks all the time as they see indefinite imperfections of their facial structure. What I am trying to convey in this piece is that people should not be ashamed of how they look as I believe everyone should love themselves for who they are, we should not be judged just by our ‘looks’.

Description

In the female figure, I have added some extra details to the face of the sculpture.

First I added staples to show that this figure has “gone under the knife” but I went a step further to use paint to conceal the staples. What I am trying to say is that even though she tried to conceal the wounds and the cut but it will always be there. We should not let small imperfections ruin what is given to us naturally. We should not degrade ourselves just because our looks are not up to standard, there shouldn’t’t be a standard for what is beautiful and what is not.

Description I also did a male version for this sculpture because recently males are also doing procedures to make themselves more ‘perfect’. First I coated the foam head with a skin coloured acrylic paint to give more liveliness to the head. I also didn’t want to paint the eyes onto the sculpture because I want them to look lifeless and more intimidating. I then used real makeup to enhance the realness of the sculpture, as I want it to look as realistic as possible so that my point could be articulated. I used liquid eyeliner for the facial hair and brown lipstick for the lips so that it would look more masculine. I also added staples to the side of his face. The procedure markings are there to represent their urge to get more plastic surgery right after their first operation.

This shows that the idea of beauty standards have been indented in their minds.

Description In the female figure of the sculpture, I have also added makeup to majority of the face onto the foam head, as I wanted to try using makeup for the best effect for the contouring of the face. I soon decided that it would be distracting if I added both contouring and the procedure markings. I did enhance the look of the foam head with some eyeliner and eye shadow just to give the eye area some depth as it looked hollow before. I also didn’t draw the eyes in to give out a sense of creepiness to the whole sculpture. This whole meaning of this project is to show people that we should love how we look and should not be restricted by beauty. Society should not have a standard for what is beautiful and what is not as we decide what is beautiful for us. We are not all perfect and we should embrace what we have.

Description

Description This art piece comes in a series of two photographs as I used different models from different fashion shows. They all have one thing in common and that’s their figure. I exaggerated her waistline to create the illusion of “bone thin” on the model’s body using the liquefying tool in Photoshop as it could move pixels to different places. I also put skeleton arms and body on the model’s body to exaggerate how the world sees these models. I want to correct the standards that the society created for us in the sense that what is beautiful. We should not be changing our lifestyle just to fit into this “standard”.

That’s why nowadays there are “plus-size” models with a more normal figure compared to these traditional models with stick figures.

I personally want to correct this idea of beauty as a designer since I believe that all body types are beautiful as it is natural and ‘untouched’. We should embrace our figures and ignore the standards that restrict us.

In this art piece, the initial idea came to me from the real modeling world. I saw the life of one of the models and their story has inspired me to create this art piece. There is a ‘requirement’ for being a fashion model and that is tall thin and beautiful from the society’s standards. Not many people meet this ‘requirement’ and thus they don’t get to be in the industry. In this art piece I explore the identity of the models as they have a certain “standard” to live up to. In the photograph on the left, I selected a picture from the Victoria Secret’s fashion show and decided to emphasize her body shape and how they look like from my point of view through using Photoshop. I added the bones as an emphasis to their ‘slender’ figures. I also wanted to emphasize on the point that they look somewhat “unhealthy” as models are often unusually thin even with their skin lay flat against their bones. This piece also allows me to explore the standards of being a model and what is considered as ‘beautiful’ in the modern days of life.

Description This is one of my very first art pieces as I did this at the start of my IB Visual Art course. The theme of this piece is the mystery of the gender identity spectrum and that theme has stuck with me from then till now. What I did for this art piece is that I want to explore my identity from my own perspective, as we don’t just have one side, we obtain a different identity when we treat different people. In this particular piece I explored my side as an actor. I am often cast as a female role in different productions and this part of me has been with me since my very first drama production. I saw a picture of a drag queen in a picture similar to this and that is what inspired me to create this art piece. What I did with this photograph is that I took two pictures of myself in a different ‘look’ and merged them together using Photoshop. This piece allowed me to explore what has been inside me, a part of my gender identity, which had not been expressed for others to see. It allowed me to find who I am as an artist and what my design and aesthetics are.

Description These are the original pictures that I took for this piece but there is a different lighting and setup. Comparing this with the final product, there is a huge difference. I had to change the shape of my face to make it parallel, I also added some effects with the smudge tool for the back ground to create a smokier backdrop.

Interpretation

This project has allowed me to explore the different parts of me and this helped to realize who I am aspired to be. I was able to discover who I am as a designer and whom I want to design for.

Description As a designer, I have been experimenting with different fabric and different design styles. This is the first art fashion piece I have ever done and the material I used were paper towels. I was deeply inspired by a contestant on project runway Justin LeBlanc, that designer did a fashion piece with test tubes and that inspired me to use materials that I haven’t experimented before to make a fashion piece. The initial design was to make ball gown with a fuller skirt but I have decided to use all paper without any fabric. I started to construct the bodice by folding paper towels. I also constructed a “corset” to hold the shape of the dress. This fashion piece is Victorian era inspired with a ball gown silhouette. I added some variations as I lowered the neckline and added fringes on the side of the shoulders to add some pizzazz to the piece.

Interpretation

I designed this piece not only to experiment with different materials, but also to challenge myself as a designer to try to work with different shapes and silhouette with paper towels and this piece helped me to realise what I can do as a fashion designer.

Description

The skirt portion of the dress is done by layering shorter pieces of paper towels on top and longer layers at the bottom. A reason why I chose the material paper towels is that it gives more movement to dress as the material is very light and as there are layers, it creates volume without adding extra material under the skirt.

This is a challenge for me, as I have never attempted to make a dress with this design and I haven’t try making a dress without creating a pattern beforehand. This is the first time I have ever made a garment without fully planning how to make it, as I have not worked with this material before. I also added in different types of tissue paper, as I wanted to mix the texture of soft and hard to give the dress more movement and flow.

Interpretation

Amber Rose’s VMA outfit inspires me to create this dress. It gives out positive connotations to the female body as females in the society is constantly being criticised on their weight and beauty. The structure of this dress is inspired by Alexander McQueen as he constantly uses dress structures from the Victorian or Edwardian era. The bodice has been created with 6 panels in order to create that corseted shape and the fit to the model. I believe that females nowadays should not be criticised on their body weight as everyone is different and there should not be a standard to how beauty is. I painted the words on the skirt to encourage females, as they should not be ashamed of their body because everyone is beautiful whether you are fat or thin.

Description The neckline of the dress is embellished with silver sequence to give the dress pizzazz, which compliments both the colour of the sleeves and the dress. The top portion of the dress is inspired by designer Susan Hilferty’s design of the Glinda dress from the musical Wicked. With this embroidery, it is able to give a wow factor to the top portion with a hint of historical influence

Description

Beneath the skirt portion of the dress, I added a crinoline and a petticoat to add dome volume to the skirt, with the circle shape of the skirt, it is able to give the skirt some more body. This also helps to give more volume so that the words would be more visible as the surface area will be bigger.

Description

This is a fashion piece I have done for a drama production. The time of the play is in 1804 and it has a heavy circus theme to the play with a Victorian/Edwardian influence to this design. I chose this dress pattern because of its boldness.

People at that time are very conservative and covered up but I designed this to be more revealing because this dress should be worn by the wife of the circus master.

This character is a feminist and a rebel. I gave her this look to show that females could wear what they want without being judged. The open collar on the neckline signifies her resistance towards social norms. The whole gown is handmade by me and this garment took me 1 week to finish the embellishments on the neckline and the whole corseted bodice, which is made with silk. There is also a high slip on the side of the skirt with a long train in the back, which helps to tell the audience more about this character, as she is edgy and fierce. The sleeves on this dress are made with soft lace while the neckline piece is made with organza.

Description

This piece of fashion illustration is one of the first illustrations I have done. With an inspiration of a peacock, I used the colours blue and green. I wanted to do something with a more unique silhouette so I created this side v-neckline with it extending to the bodice of the dress. Although mermaid dress pattern is widely used in the fashion industry but still I chose to use this the pattern because it mimics the shape of the peacock. With its tail wide open, the mermaid tail flows beautifully just like a peacock opening its tail. In this illustration I used marker as it allows me to present the structure of bodice and the fluidity of the skirt.