Pipilotti Rist

Finally getting to visit Pipilotti Rist's 'Eyeball Massage' at the Southbank Centre, I was immediately drawn to her 'Massachusetts Chandelier', detail left, a structure created from underwear of the artist's family and friends, and illuminated from both inside and out by two projections. Rist's celebration of the human body here focuses upon natural bodily functions often considered "taboo" to discuss. The artist claims 'the chandelier bridges the contradictions between the things we ignore and the things we look for, the places we come from and want to go back into'.

I was particularly interested in exploring the relationship between clothing and the human body; as explored in previous experimentations, ideas of the body as a malleable, "plastic" subject, as easy to alter as the 'cut of [our] clothes', distinctly within the context of disordered eating and body image, are of strong interest to me. The conflict between rigid self discipline and fragility of tissue paper to create the cast of a Barbie doll, below, create an interesting tension, and is something I am keen to explore, the beginnings of which can be seen in the cast of a mannequin's bust, below.

Untitled, (2011) tissue paper mache

Untitled, (2011) and detail, tissue paper mache and thread