Unit 2
Unit Two: “What Are You Looking At?”
For my second unit project I wanted to create a life size soft sculpture piece that also displayed some crochet elements; titled, “What Are You Looking At?”. This assignment was used to explore the idea of gaze and more importantly the male gaze and how it relates to the ways in which we see ourselves through others eyes, such as gender expression and sexuality. I created somewhat of a “sex doll” with visible and surrealistic crocheted breasts and a vagina to display physical vulnerability and to try express the disconnection and dissociation between your physical being and mind, due to the fear of being sexualized and overall distress of not being perceived in the way you would like to be. My biggest inspiration for this piece was Yayoi Kusama and her series of Compulsion Furniture. Kusama’s Compulsion Furniture is composed of phallic shaped stuffed soft sculpture that completely covers furniture, such as chairs, couches, etc. Her motif, the oblong organic shape serves as a metaphor for her own deep seated sexual anxieties. The plushies infest it’s base furniture and are seen as an unfortunate growth, symbolizing her fear and obsession over male sexuality. Kusama uses her work to overcome her fears (such as an aversion to sex) through exposure in attemps to subvert her discomfort with regard to sex. Inspired by Kusama, I also wanted to also use a similar method of exposure to step out of my body and analyze something completely outside myself through the form of soft sculpture.
The materials I used for the project were, flesh colored and various shades of pink yarn (for the bra and panty set), beige colored tights, cotton filling, and other little finalizing touches, such as embroidery thread, hot pink fuzzy fabric and a belly button ring. I started off the project by crocheting my bra and panty set, following along with Youtube videos. Firstly, I started with the breasts of the bra, using a magic circle along with double stitches all along to create the beginning of the dome shape and from there kept adding stitches to lengthen and widen the dome until it started to enclose. Once enclosed I used light baby pink yarn to create an areola, using single stitches and multiple chains for the nipple and then stuffed the boobs with flesh felt, to create density. After crocheting two separate boobs, I made a bra top with straps along the shoulders and back with the same flesh colored yarn as the domes and finally stitched on the boobs to the front of the top. I then made a pair of underwear, also using a double stitch throughout the entire process, with straps going along the side to attach both the front and back flap. To the front flap of the undergarment, using a lighter and darker shade of pink, I crocheted two layers/flaps overlapping one another to create similar imagery to a vulva. Then going in with a stringy and rough rose colored string, I double stitched multiple layers along the flaps to create pubes. After my bra and panty set were complete, I started on the main part of my project, the actual body form. I started by completely stuffing two separate pairs of tights with pillow filling, to create the body’s form and lumpy looking fat. I used the leg part of the tights to replicate the body’s arms and legs and the stomach part of the tights as the waist and torso. After being stuffed, I hand stitched both the top and bottom together at the waist and wrapped around a second layer of tights to cover the stuffing poking through the first layer of tights. As one of my last steps I attached the bra and panties to the form by using safety pins to secure it down and fit it to the form. Lastly, I stitched chunks of hot magenta silky fabric under the underarms and in between the legs, to duplicate the look of body hair and as my very last touch attached a blinged out belly button ring with a dangling charm, reading the word bitch onto the clit.
When displayed I propped the doll up in an empty corner of a room, sitting with its legs out and arms to the side, making it as un-noticeable and belittled as possible. This was done to play with the literal meaning of display, even when put in an uncomfortable and unwanted position. I wanted to make the awkwardness of it’s position quite visible to unsettle the audience and challenge the viewer to have to keep looking even when “being looked back at”. This was done to display one's lack of control of what others do with your own image and the idealization that can come with it. Overall, I used this doll as an escape to step out of my own body and have physical control over something outside of myself, which heavily relates to my first unit project, also having to do with the tangible body. Now looking back at my process I wish I would have started on the soft sculpture part of my project first, instead of the bra and panty set, so I would have been able to measure the body form and fit the garments accordingly instead of having to pin them down into place. I would have also liked to add more personal touches, such as the belly button ring to give it more style, regardless I am very pleased with the way in which my project turned out.
Process Documentation
