AP Studio Art Portfolios

To Be Seen, Not Watched

Inspired by the novel 1984, I connected with Winston, who pondered his life before Big Brother: before he was watched. I explored that Idea to show the derealization of a person when constantly controlled. An unsettling series of images to make my audience uncomfortable, a feeling I have always felt. "To Be Seen, Not Watched" is the title of my sustained investigation that explores the inevitable destruction of one's perception due to hyper-vigilance, the idea of being over-aware. This investigation tested my artistic depths, my editing style, and my ability to portray my own experiences.

Within my investigation, I experimented with hues, prevalent in works (3, 4, 5, 9, 13, 15). I used color to show the division between reality and dystopia. I experimented with different qualities of distortion within the face (1, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15) to depict broken perception. I liked the idea of using eyes to depict over-awareness, with work 9 I reached a place of stagnancy, so I started to draw eyes and write frantically and used it as an overlay. Also using eyes in work 5 to create a digital collage; a long extensive process necessary to connect the ideas throughout the series.  

Time and Dispairity

My sustained investigation is over my suffering, distress, and personal trauma in relationship to the element of time. I used my portfolio to tell my story of overcoming my struggles of grieving my lost identity. I questioned how my self-perception changes and, how can I depict the inconsistencies? So in my portfolio, I expressed various ways of suffering because of my self-perception (5,8,12,13,14). I questioned how I can show deterioration of my identity and begin to show the reconstruction of myself. So I began to slowly add color to symbolize the reconstruction of myself.

At the beginning of my process, I used monochromatic pictures frequently, then I transitioned to using the color blue as the motif of my portfolio to symbolize hope for better times and to express those things will fall into place. In pictures 3, 6, and 9 I changed multiple times to fit with the others. They either had too much color or a lack of that. Which led me to experiment with the color blue instead of keeping my portfolio completely monochromatic. I noticed that I used glass to depict change in perception through suffering frequently, so I explored using hands instead (8,13).