To look at my own work, as well as the work of other artists, through different lenses allows me to analyse possible associations with my work and to see where I could take my work next.

To help me with this, I am going to refer to single word/phrase associations from members of tutorials, flatmates and Instagram followers that I have collected in response to my experimentation so far.

Lens of self

bones, guts, fat, pregnancy, warmth

In considering my work as a representation of ‘self’, I see the foam tubes as bones that are fragile and porous, and incredibly brittle, the foam light but compact like the fragile feeling of pushing against and enclosed space. The bursting of the foam from their containers are perhaps the need for natural necessities like breathing and socialising and connecting to not be confined, for example by something manufactured such as the rubber. Holding the hot water bottle casts against my body, with the blood-like food dye, feels like an extension of my body, whether through bloating or pregnancy or a growth with the blood-like colours bringing up associations with pain, injury and alive-ness.

Lens of body

what we put into our body: ice cream, toffee, candy sticks, bread, french pastries, raw cheese twists, milky way bar, popcorn, mashed potato, meringue, marshmellow

I wonder whether it is the colour and texture of the foam that reminds people of food. While I had no intentions of exploring food, perhaps this is an important reminder of the context of colour and perhaps need for more control over the colour of my work.

body parts: bones, guts, comical mouth, fat, pregnancy, excess plastic surgery, xray, ‘boyfriend pillow’, skin

The repeating theme of the body in associations that both me and my peers make can be a way to think about both metaphors and materiality. The descriptions of hot water bottles as having a ‘neck’ has transferred into my prints and foam casts – the detailed black prints becoming x-rays. If the hot water bottle is a body, then filling it with foam and freezing it has bloated and extended it, stretching the material limits of the rubber – this is something to be cautious about in relation to associations with fat and existing systemic fatphobia. The stretching and exploding extends into ideas about the outside versus the inside – what is inside trying to get out? what is being constrained? is it another human, is it internal organs, is it something foreign inside the body, is it something out of proportion to the skin? why is it in there? why can it not be contained? is it unwanted or welcome? The rubber texture and colour of one hot water bottle in particular brought up a lot of associations with flesh and skin – I have more spray paint of this colour too.

Lens of ‘other’

weird invention, weird bones, forbidden snack, alien breathing tube, guts, fungus spores, comical mouth, excess plastic surgery, explosion, burst container, bulging tree, Alien xenomorph, skeletal xray, distended/possessed body, sea foam

The largest reaction from this project has been that of morbid fascination with the uncanny. Even with the comparisons to the human body, they are often associated with the adjective ‘alien’ or ‘weird’. Is it the proportions, or the fact that the rubber can be stretched? The bulge of the foam and its bursting perhaps also have connotations of excess and intrusion – perhaps relating to invasion and overwhelm like that of fungus, virus and tumour. I feel a lot of this relates to the ‘uncanny valley‘ – perhaps if this transformed hot water bottle did not have resemblances to the neck and stomach, and was not associated with warmth, then it would be less ‘weird’ and more of a mundane object.

Lens of connection

welding, boyfriend pillow

While fewer associations have come up in relation to connection and warmth, this could be because it can ‘go without saying’ that hot water bottles provide warmth. Or perhaps I associate it with being a stand-in for hugs etc. more than others. It’s also worth noting that by ‘transforming’ it through freezing/tearing/sewing, the hot water bottle is no longer able to (safely) be filled with hot water. Conversations about its links to warmth and connection tend to come when the conversation turns to idea and concept rather than initial reactions to the physical nature of the object. These have explored ideas around stand-ins for human contact, such as ‘boyfriend pillows’ and sex dolls. These often are conversations of gentle teasing, amusement and slight crude humour that circle around being isolated and alone. These are perhaps more related to the rubber creations rather than the foam, which are less pliable, and the plaster casts, which while they involve the body and contact, are still fragile and less interactive. Exploring warmth and contact feels difficult to do – do I document this in photography? does this have to be a form of performance? is it ok to ask a viewer to pick up my strange distended hot water bottle and wrap its long rubber tubular structure around themself?

Miscellaneous

megaphone, water can, explosion smoke cloud

(for reference)

further Uncanny Valley reading: M. Mori, K. F. MacDorman and N. Kageki, “The Uncanny Valley [From the Field],” in IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 98-100, June 2012, doi: 10.1109/MRA.2012.2192811.

Lens of self versus Lens of ‘other’ / Claire Bath / Intermedia by blogadmin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0