Alice HJ

These illustrations have a really interesting aesthetic because their style and colour scheme is cute but actually the drawings are quite horrific. This creates a really nice contradiction to the cute pudgy female character to the horrible things that are happening to her. I think this communicates really well the inner turmoils that women feel even though on the exterior they seem happy.

This one is the most horrific, where the character is literally a boil which is being squeezed out by a manicured hand. The imagery is scary but the message is clear, how supposed flaws are eradicated but actually in doing this you are removing very important parts of your self. The small character seems scared trying to push herself back in, trying to remain. It is important that the hand is a female's and seemingly benevolent because the agents that exacerbate our body image problems are beautiful images of photoshopped women. I think Alice chooses to depict this part of the narrative because it is unclear whether she actually does squeeze the boil. This is important as it draws important connections to women pinching fatter parts of their body and not necessarily changing themselves but hating themselves. 

This illustration is equally harrowing but I think it perfectly depicts that feeling of emptiness which seems to creep in when a girl becomes an adult and aware of her body and how others look at it too. The character is shown to be pulling out her insides which again could be visualise that self destructive tendancy which women have in order to have some control over their bodies. It is interesting that the artist shows tress growing from her innards and I think this shows an element of hope. From her ruined insides, new shoots are growing which can bloom into something else. Life is a constant battle of reinvention and growth, and maybe the emptiness you feel now is just your body making space for something new. 

Dove 'beauty' patch

Prepare yourself for a startling revelation…..you are naturally beautiful. I bet you would have never worked that out without your friend, dove here pointing that out in this painfully condescending advert. Sarcasm aside (I''l try) it really is disappointing just how condescending this is. The message they are trying to communicate is that you do not realise how beautiful you are but this message gets lost with this weird concept of a beauty patch. I mean who would be stupid enough to believe that you can buy a patch that enhances beauty? The advert just clings to the stereotype of an insecure woman desperate for anything to make her more attractive. It is also a casting issue, to make this more authentic and believable they could have casted "unconventionally" beautiful women but all the actresses were pretty good looking. Again only giving screen time to one ideal of beauty, hardly body positive. Also their shock horror that the beauty patch was fake was embarrassingly forced and unbelievable. There's just this acceptance in all these adverts that all women have to  hate their bodies and that this is the status quo. These advertisers seem to think it is unbelievable that any woman can be happy with her body, which just grates with most women who are genuinely happy. We are surrounded by companies making money out of our insecurities yet appearing to be our friends like Special K, but this dove advert isn't even clever enough to mask their body shaming stereotypes of women. 

The parody version is by far better and shows the general irritation at these companies and their adverts:

hashtag true beauty

where's our nobel peace prize or whatever??

Special K - More than just a number

Television seems to be awash with adverts calling for body positivity and this is just one of them by Special K, making women feel better about jean sizes by replacing numbers with compliments in order to fit jeans. This would have been a beautiful social experiment boosting women's body positivity if if hadn't been created by the brand that has advertised using the tag line 'Drop a size in 2 weeks.'

This was a harmful campaign to women's body image insecurities and encouraged a very unhealthy weight loss programme of losing weight quickly by eating 2 bowls of cereal instead of 2 meals. However after years of playing on and making money from women feeling insecure about their bodies, they are now trying to make money about body positivity. It is this history that annoys me and I think the advert rings fake and overplayed. The women are reacting like it is some great revelation that their bodies are actually nice. Unsurprisingly none of the women in the advert could be over a size 12, but of course Special K wouldn't want to ruin the beautiful aesthetic of their advert would they? But because all the actresses are slim, it just seems so fake, of course everyone has insecurities no matter how skinny but I'm sure the result would not have been quite so empowering if a group of size 32 women had walked in. The most frustrating thing is that women are being manipulated and dictated about when they can hate their bodies and when they should like them. The tone of the advert angers me because Special K are trying to appear like they are helping women but are actually a huge part of the problem. It is annoying because the idea that you are more than a number is important and something that I have been playing with in my poetry but Special K have managed to warp this message to sell their brand. I know none of this is surprising as they are advertising a brand but we need to realise their immense power over our subconscious body image insecurities. We need to recognise that these adverts are not selling body positivity but a product which they are trying to communicate will give you the body you can be positive about.

Laura Marling - Little Love Caster

Yes I am, yes I am a master.
I had you, bad man.
Little love, little love caster
Palm of my hand.

I wish that I had, I wish that I had've told you then
Where my kindness ends.

I will take you home, I will take you home and then
Our lovespell will end

You are new to me
You are new to me
And I can't seem to say
"I'd like you to stay"

Yes I am, yes I am a master
I had you, bad man
Little love, little love caster

They might know you best, they might know you best and love you most
But I would breathe you in
I would breathe you in and be your ghost.

I saw a lady dance yesterday
She was easily swayed
I cannot be tossed and turned in this way
I'm not your tiny dancer
I can't seem to say,
"I'd like you to stay."

I saw a lady dance yesterday, 
She is easily swayed.
I cannot be tossed and turned in this way.
I'm no one's tiny dancer.

And I can't seem to say,
"I'd like you to stay."
I can't seem to say,
"I'd like you to stay."

Laura Marling is a huge inspiration to me, I wish I could be more like her. She is so sure of herself and her self worth and completely brazen in the face of men trying to take advantage. She is 'the master hunter' and 'eagle' so is no victim of our society but uses her bad experiences to learn from: 'thank you naivety for failing my again.' She is so strong willed and independent but then beautifully romantic 'how did I sleep at night with you far from my side?' Mostly I love her because she does not let herself be manipulated by men and I think it is this song which illustrates this best. 'I'm not your tiny dancer' is a declaration that she will not be pulled around by any man. It is a great metaphor because in dancing it is the men who lead the women and so she is defying that convention. In the refrain she broadens her message 'I'm no one's tiny dancer' this is just so refreshing because she is not just speaking to one spurned lover but to all men, that she will not be manipulated. By using 'I cannot be tossed' instead of 'will not' it emphasises how it is not a choice, it is impossible to do this to her, she refuses to be acted on and is adamant that she will be her own dancer. At the core of this song she is refusing to be an object and to be lead by a man. 

I thought of this song the other day when I was rewriting the line in my poem, 'plaything of the patriarchy.' I was thinking at one time of visualising this with a girl on a puppet string and that reminded me of the imagery in this song. 

yes i can quote laura marling lyrics like that

Michelle K

You know that dinner party question? If you could have anyone at a dinner party who would you invite? Well Michelle K would definitely be somewhere on the list along with Laura Marling.
She has no published book only a tumblr blog in which she posts her work, which seems to be a very cathartic experience for her and she states she has little interest in publishing her work. Her work resonates very clearly with myself at the moment but I thought this short poem is just perfect. It is her honesty with herself that creates such astounding lines that give such an impact. It is so true even Laura Marling concurs, 'every girl falling in love with the first man that she sees,' women are ready to give love to others and sacrifice parts of themselves for others but cannot accept themselves. This poem really emphasises that idea that women are brought up expected to attract men and marry but we are never taught to love ourselves. We are so ready to fall in love and be loved because we have never loved ourselves and so need to feel accepted. However somewhere in growing up you realise that you must love yourself to be happy. Placing 'myself' on it's own line just emphasises this separation of love from the self. A woman's relationship with her body is complicated in our society but it shouldn't be, we should love it and care for it. This is another of my favourites which I think we can all learn from, to treat your body like a child means that you will be kind to yourself and mend that broken relationship between you and your body.

"I treat myself like I would my daughter. I brush her hair, wash her laundry, tuck her in goodnight. Most importantly, I feed her. I do not punish her. I do not berate her, leave tears staining her face. I do not leave her alone. I know she deserves more.
I know I deserve more."

Snickers Advert *shakes head and cries*

Throughout this whole advert I was so happy, it was brilliant seeing how women were pleasantly surprised by the builders shouts:

"Do you wanna hear a flithy word? Gender Bias

I'd like to show you… The respect you deserve

I appreciate your appearance is just one aspect of who you are

You know what I'd like to see… a society in which the objectification of women makes way for gender neutral interaction, free from assumptions and expectations"

They were doing so well by playing with the usual lines that we all recognise but changing them to show the builders as being respectful. I thought the advert was trying to show that by eating snickers builders are improved to act like decent human beings because they are not hungry. But then they ended with this:

So let me get this right, men being respectful and decent is part of the problem of being hungry, once this hunger is sated, men can return to normalcy, being sexist objectifiers. With this tagline, they completely derail any positive message and support rape culture. Why would they do this? Snickers is sold to the male market but surely even this campaign would turn off men, because by buying the product after this advert, is basically admitting as a man you identify with being a sexual harasser. It completely sends out the wrong message because it does not only accept that sexual harassment is normal but actively promotes it. The advert pokes fun at sexual harassment and does not take it seriously. It is a damaging advert which propagates the idea that women are here for men's entertainment and pleasure, a myth that needs no more encouragement, already made rampant by the porn industry. This is a very disappointing advert which not only angers women but also should anger any decent men.

Elliot the Bull - Colourblind

Oh yeah wow has to be one of my favourite design companies that I have researched because of the really unique characters they create and animate from wooden bulls to wooly urban octopus. This film they created for Elliot and the Bull's music video 'Colourblind' and has a really interesting narrative. We see the birth of a small wooden bull who has the power to create; to draw trees and platforms from the ground with the flick of his wrist. He is initially surprised with his ability and after trying it out he expands his ambitions and his world grows around him. I think this is very much a story about creativity, about how when you first start out you don't know what you can achieve but through continual work you can create whole works of your imagination. You really feel like the creators of this film love this character, as they imbue him with this childish wonder and naivety, through little tilts of his head like this (shown below) when he doesn't understand something. I think this character is the personification of everybody's creative hearts that look and make new exciting things. 

However it is this sweet character's inquisitiveness that brings his doom. By touching a black square a bigger bull is created, who has the opposite power of destruction. I think it is interesting how this new character is animated because he does not seem malevolent or that he is enjoying destruction, he seems weary with his sloped shoulders and heavy slow steps. I think this reluctance is supposed to communicate the inevitability of destruction, how whatever you build, it can always be torn down. Maybe a warning to artists, that nothing is immortal, just like their creators, creations can be destroyed. With this in mind it is interesting that the creator bull looks straight into the destroyers eyes when he himself is about to be destroyed. He looks resigned to his fate, again the same inevitability of his ending before being reduced to a pile of triangles.

 I think this film discusses the conflict between creation and destruction, and their interdependence with each other. Sometimes things need to be destroyed before new ideas can bloom. Or maybe they examining how the destruction of art can be art in itself, can there be the same power of communication in destruction that there is in creation? The ending is ambiguous and unhopeful, the larger bull has nothing left to destroy and so is surrounded by a dark abyss and so looks out gloomily with his bright eyes. To me the ending suggests that destruction is not communicative or beautiful only empty, it can only lead to reducing ideas and creativity, and so everyone suffers. 

PES

I don't think any animation student's blog would be complete without looking at a PES animation, and I thought I would look at his latest creation. Unsurprisingly it is fabulously efficient in communicating it's message but in an utterly flamboyant and unexpected way. PES has created the cliched romantic hotel room with a do not disturb sign, chocolates, champagne, low lighting and the folded towels and then utterly destroys the ambience in order to show that this type of hotel is outdated. PES shows this destruction by animating the towel swans to enact their mating ritual which takes up the majority of the advert. However when they finally meet beak to beak, forming a heart with their necks they are suddenly swallowed by a huge shark. The advert is for a new citizen M hotel in Times Square who pride themselves on 'affordable luxury' and so the advert states that all these romantic frivolities are a waste of time, why float like a swan when you can leap like a shark right into the centre of New York. I think PES could also be trying to make a larger point about modern romance, because swans always mate for life so by choosing these as the animal towels I think he saying that monogamy is also a thing of the past. The blood pools that rise up are interesting as well, because they are literally staining the sheets with satin material, I think this trying to show that over the top luxury is just as much as a nuisance as stained sheets, encouraging people to make life easier for themselves and stay at their hotels.

I think this is one of his most ambitious animations so far in terms of playing with camera angles and focus. The reflection in the painting is just beautiful but really gives the animation a three dimensionality which makes it seem more realistic. The choice of painting further contextualises the swans by placing them almost in their dream world of water. I think PES is really clever because he creates these animated worlds that seem so rounded and full, he does this by thinking a lot about the integration of sound to make the movement make sense, for example he animates the bed with the sound of rippling water, we see a bed but hear a lake, so he places us in this strange dual world that is somewhere between the two. 

http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/kesselskramer-pes-swan-song

Jenny Saville

I have been a fan of Jenny Saville ever since seeing her work in the Modern Art Oxford in which her awe-inspiring canvas' were on display. While I was doing my scanning I remembered these paintings of large women lying on top of sheets of glass created. I think Saville is truly unique in how she looks at and studies the female form, she does not sexualise or criticise but truly celebrates the power of the female form. The sheer size of her canvas' makes your neck ache looking up at these huge expansive stomachs and thighs. This makes the form portrayed on the canvas extremely intimidating and embues it with a real sense of power. We are bombarded with perfect photoshopped figure which become boring in their unattainability and plasticness. In direct response, Saville's work is heavy, fleshy almost arranged like piles of meat. The directness of the poses and the size of them makes them completely unapologetic, our society shuns these women and Saville sticks her middle finger up at this and spreads their lovely folds in thick bold strokes of paint. I think she is brave, especially as it is herself pressed against the glass, but she is also giving a voice to the hidden women, women who are made to feel less feminine and attractive because they do not conform to our narrow ideals of beauty. Saville states "I'm not painting disgusting, big women. I'm painting women who've been made to think they're big and disgusting, who imagine their thighs go on forever…" She is trying to visualise that self hate that we all deal with, looking at your body and pulling and pinching with disgust. I think she manages to convey this self loathing so well from the sickly colour scheme to the weight of her strokes.

Simon Schama discusses this "Jenny Saville’s monumental paintings wallow in the glory of expansiveness. Jenny Saville is a real painter’s painter. She constructs painting with the weighty heft of sculpture. Her exaggerated nudes point up, with an agonizing frankness, the disparity between the way women are perceived and the way that they feel about their bodies. One of the most striking aspects of Jenny Saville’s work is the sheer physicality of it. Jenny Saville paints skin with all the subtlety of a Swedish massage; violent, painful, bruising, bone crunching." I think this is the best comparison to her style, each stroke seems strong with purpose and meaning, which make the overall effect uncomfortable to look at because every stroke questions your own issues with body image.