Dressing up the greeks

In my group crit with krysytoff it was suggested that as i didn't have a mannequin that I should use the statues around uni as a guide to see what they would look like on the body as it is quite difficult to work using my own body.  What I found was that the pieces meaning changed when you changed the pose. The upright statue with the yellow on her head looks almost evangelical; like some sort of religious figure, whereas the knelt statue with the knee snicking out I think looks suggestive, giving the costume a cheeky and playful meaning. Adding the glasses to the other statue was an attempt to make the the pieces more comical, as when I dressed that statue up I thought it looked like it was going to a party (I am always thinking about my work in a festival context). The colour and the contrast in materials - the smooth plaster and the textured netting - helps add to the comical aspect of this work, as it is just not something you expect to see in the everyday. I also enjoyed the fact that because of the placements of the statues the viewer only really sees the front of them, and they might not realise that the buttocks of the statues also looked very funny with just a ribbon round them, I think this is partially because of the hot pink contrasting with the white, as hot pink is a common colour for ladies underwear. From dressing up the greeks, I have realised that having each colour of netting separate on a ribbon will not completely encompass the body like I want as the back of the body will not be fully covered, so I want to think of another way that I can cover the body in the netting. Perhaps attaching them to a base first to create a fuller colour?

Although still within the boundaries of university, I see this series of work as being out of the gallery context, which is the context where I can picture my work the most. Because I left the costumes on the mannequins for quite a while I hope that the audience (uni students and staff) walked past and were intrigued by them, as they were so different to the naked sculptures they are used to.