Emotions...

To 'start off' my project I'm thinking about the emotional side of 'growing up', and the feeling we experience. Through researching artists who use their emotions (literally) in their work, I found an artist called Bas Jan Ader.

His bodies of work titled "Please don't leave me" & "I'm too sad to tell you", involves 5 minute videos [And longer] of him crying. There are also interesting stills from these videos...

His work, like the emotions we begin to realise during our development into adulthood is upsetting, confusing, Romantic, unstable, self conscious but there's also an element of vulnerability.

It's a very simple idea but the results are compelling and very effective...

[1971]

I tried to find his book with these two projects in in the university library but it turns out someone has misplaced it(!) So I'm having to rely on the internet to research more of his work... which I'm, finding quite hard to find information & images, especially good quality ones.

Some video stills as a series that I feel are just as effective as the video;

He also photographed more photo series' of himself and his movement, which I also find interesting... It reminds me of the work of Eadweard Muybridge... (Capturing the concept of movement & actions).

[1972]

Example of Eadweard Muybridge's work ;

Image from masters-of-photography.com

I'm defiantly interested in experimenting with this kind of concept as a starting point... whether it be anger, sadness, vulnerability... I may try a few different emotions before I explore further. I think this is a good starting point as I don't want to delve too deep into the project all at once !