Beth Brock's profile

Astraea, Laetitia, Nemo

Entitled ‘Astraea’ the white sculpture represents purity and innocence. By bleaching light shirt fabrics with domestic bleach and Dylon fabric colour stripper I wanted to illustrate the lengths people go through to purify and perfect their appearance. With the impact of social media, we live in a society where we are bombarded with images of airbrushed celebrity portraits. There is the sociological pressure for us to create and live an idealistic utopian lifestyle.  The central vibrantly coloured sculpture is entitled ‘Laetitia’ who is the Roman goddess of joy, gaiety and celebration. For this sculpture I used vibrant coloured shirts and fabrics. Additional ribbons were tied to the second layer to add to the illusion of fruitfulness and fullness. It symbolises the extroverted celebration of ones identity and vibrancy of an individual’s personality. The final sculpture, entitled ‘Nemo’, meaning nobody; represents the absence of ones identity. By dyeing dark shirts black, with Dylon machine dye, I wanted to express the lengths that people go through to hide their identity. In many cultures people, particularly women, are required to dress modestly and wear black to hide their beauty and personality from others. This disguise encases their individuality, creating a uniformed identity. They become unknown and no one in particular. An alternative analogy of this collection is that each sculpture is representative of a period in our lives: The white purity and innocence of birth, the colourful celebration of life and the black decadent, deconstruction of death.
Astraea, Laetitia, Nemo
Published:

Astraea, Laetitia, Nemo

Published: