Hold Your Tongue Exhibition Tour
After group crits during the first weeks of the semester I received very helpful feedback on my summer project. (Read more about my summer project HERE). My film got an overall positive response but was seen as too on the nose with the second half of the film. I proceeded to edit out the second half so the meaning of the piece wasn’t so obvious. I was happy with the final outcome of the film but wanted to push the ideas even further. I was looking at themes of womanhood and a sense of community around being a woman. It then brought me to think about the girls’ bathrooms in bars and the sense of community that many women experience there. I then looked at toilet imagery and played around with ideas of displaying the film within a toilet.
Toilet Studies and Sketches (October 2024)
After a 1-1 with one of the art tutors I was introduced to the work of Emma Hart (see artist analysis here) who displays her work in unconventional and fun ways. I then came up with the idea of displaying the piece on a phone or iPad, opposed to just projecting it. This linked to the theme of toilets, as most people go on their phones when using the toilet. This also made the work a more intimate experience, the idea of the viewer sitting on the toilet while the person in the film looked back at them made the piece a much more emotional experience. I was also inspired by Marina Abramovic’s the artist is present (see Artwork Analysis here) which created a very emotional and intimate experience between the work and the viewer.
Continuing to think about the imagery of toilets, I started to think how people often read while doing their business, and came to the conclusion that I wanted to create a handout for the viewer to take when visiting my piece. Developing from my Depression Zine (view here) I had the idea of making a small booklet that the viewer can read while watching the film. although i had initially written a short essay to accompany the original cut of the film, for the exhibition i wanted to create something a lot more visual. I took inspiration from my toilet sketches as well as imagery of the scold’s bridle and collated other information gathered through my developing practice in order to create the final zine. I decided to change the name of the zine to Do Not
Hold Your Tongue in order to use it as a politically motivated hand out, inspired by the coffee house booklets used in the 18th century. I used magazine cut outs for the title of the piece on the door in order to compliment the collage style of the zine.
Exhibition Prep and Set Up
A few last minute additions were made on the day of the exhibition. The art tutors wanted my film to be displayed in the foyer on a large tv screen, as well as in the toilet. I really enjoyed how the piece looked on a larger screen, however, it went against my ideas regarding accessible art as it was displayed in a more conventional format. The idea of making art accessible is really important to me and is something I want to explore further. Showing art in a toilet instead of a gallery makes it possible for anyone to see it and avoids the gatekeeping of higher artistic institutions.
Hold Your Tongue (on the big screen)