For this project I chose the blue gown wearing person who appeared to be hugging a shadowy figure near the back of the painting. I knew right off that bat that I wanted to do a dichotomy or show a duality between good and evil or similar paradoxes of perceived binary options such as masculine of feminine. While in the end I did not explicitly go more masculine for the demon outfit the selection I did make for wardrobe reflects a paradoxical notion of female beauty standards. The are branches of belief that still hold the chaste pure maiden of domesticity in the highest regard and those who see being freer, revealing clothes as the ideal though usually not for the fact that these people feel able to be expressive but because of the allure of being able to force submission or be submitted by them. That is however only how some people see it and while fantasy is fine in reality it is best to just allow people to express themselves how they feel comfortable and negotiate how you understand them and their meaning behind their presentation.
Unicorns are seen as mythical creatures that flock to pure maidens and so instead of doing simply an angle or holy priestess I incorporated a unicorn horn to play up the cult of domesticity aspect and slightly poke fun that Unicorns are denoted to be male but my outfit is traditional female attire and ironically for me I would define such an outfit as being peak masculinity for me. Similarly for the demon I am dressed in somewhat flashy attire that highlights a afab body but the neckpiece was something typically worn by men called a jabot and would place the demon as a succubus as while not as traditionally masculine in look the feeling is there which I would ascribe to being feminine.
Also the black and white image is powerful but when making it there were small pops of colour in effects I added and it looked really fricken good but I also knew that I did not want to remove colour so I’m going to project a rainbow onto it as a workaround. The sample test is in the gallery so if it hits at the right angle it’ll look sharp. The rainbow is a jab of spot in this is very queer in case the image feels ambiguous still. I mean I’m in over the top looks and dramatic as heck lighting.
The other thought behind the work is the notion of having to be a specific representation to be seen or accepted as queer. This notion was heavily based on the idea of queer perfectionism and the strange standards of just being able to live a normal suburban life in peace as just as praiseworthy like we can’t lead a similar life to most people and by doing so we are elevated to heroes it’s baffling. That notion is from James Somerton’s Queer perfectionism video on Black Swan (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezirFAu3MuA). Aside from the struggle to just determine myself and accepting that others will likely not see me the way I wish to be seen I also wanted to dabble in the idea of truth, beauty and goodness. The video I was given a good visual from I could not find and didn’t finish but it cemented this idea that perceived beauty and goodness lead to things being accepted as truth. It its terrifying and I intended to present a beautiful work to then show queerness as beautiful and open the idea to others while not sacrificing my sense of style or aesthetics.
I have a Pinterest board of my makeup and reference images but not sure how to link that so I can show you in class or something and I also have my digital files that show the transformation into the final image.
a journey that wasn't 