Another exhibition I went to was Tate Modern in London. The exhibition was full of many multi media artist, whom displayed work that portrayed many different concepts also explored a variety of different art techniques.
There were a couple of artists at Tate Modern that really influenced me such as Shimamoto Shozo, Lee Bul, Phyllida Barlow and also many more. There was a room in Tate Modern that portrayed work involving feminism and media, which is something that I have always been interested in as I believe my work involves the idea of distorting yourself and not obeying the norm of society’s perception of women. The artists included a range of techniques and approaches, some of the pieces of art work included images of empowered femininity, from contemporary celebrities to mythological figures. Where as the other artists manipulated their own appearance to present femininity as a masquerade, they highlight the performative aspects of gender identity. The whole concept of the artists art work is to aim to expose how double standards continue to happen to this day.
Another artist who really inspired me at Tate Modern is Lee Bul. She creates sponge stuffed fabric costumes which she uses within her performance pieces. The tentacle like forms on her art work deconstruct society’s expectations of ‘well behaved’ bodies, when Lee performs in her sculptural pieces of art it allows her to express her freedom and to not be judged even more by society. Lee grew up as a South Korean citizen and there are so many restrictions and boundaries within the culture. Lee really does focus on shaping oppression of women, commercialisation of sex, that are intensified in a male dominated society,
There was a room in Tate that involved everyday materials and objects as art work. This is something I have been looking at within my own studies, I have been looking at the human body, distorting it, using the body as an art material however I decided to expand my research further and look at how us humans leave a mark on earth, and how it impacts us. Marisa Merz work explores the relationship between art and everyday life, she tends to use traditional techniques such as knitting. Where as Nairy Baghramian produces work that involves sleek finishes, working with casting, carving. Baghramians work depicts abstracts forms of bodies or body parts, her work often shows brokenness or prosthetic relationship between the body and its environment.
