The thinking and process that is directing the development of Huguette Caland’s ‘Self Portrait’

Firstly, I was having difficulty on how to actually develop such an open piece; I could have stuck with it’s simplicity and have my work open to interpretation by using delicate drawings, or I could incorporate all that I’ve learnt through lectures this term and create interesting, but rather abstract, set of pieces that could still be open to interpretation.

I wanted to create these pieces without taking the meaning behind them too literal, and have them mean something different to every spectator, which would in turn make my pieces even more interesting to look at and discuss.

I used the original artwork of the vagina and used a theory from Constellation about phallic women and castration fear to develop it, which helped me create this idea. I also used materials to make it symbolic, so that it wasn’t too literal.

I’m very happy with how they’ve all turned out, and I’m pleased that I went down the more abstract route. Creating a sense of wanting to touch the pieces and analysing why I made them in this specific way is exactly what I wanted. I’ll be cutting out more boards to develop this idea further and, hopefully, create more of these.