Following feedback from my tutors and peers, I realised I wanted to represent disconnect in a modern, digital future more clearly and conceptually than I had in my previous work (having used paint and physical fragmentation of the images I’d created). I was still interested in the idea of taking a complete or ‘perfect’ human form, which effectively communicates the idea of the self, and distorting it with documentation. This drew me to clay as the next medium I would explore as it is a natural, malleable material that would allow me to create a raw and natural-looking human form.
I photographed the ambiguous body I had made, baring in mind I wanted to digitise images of this natural form and manipulate them on the computer, conveying disconnect digitally; one major cause of disconnect between us and our surrounding increasingly in the future is the prominence of technology: our digital focus. My application of digital effects will distort the natural form to show disconnect.
When working with clay, I proceeded to physically distort the figure I had made, to see if images of this process could enhance my proceeding digital work. I found the process helpful: handling the clay myself and controlling its separation from the form was a grotesque representation of disconnect in the form of a dismembered body. While this wasn’t my final direction, I like the effect of the images in progression as you can see the form becoming less and less recognisable as human. I think it represents disconnect in terms of confusion about identity or an individual’s own place in their environment, and the pain and feelings of isolation this may cause.
Sophia Tate 