My Live Action piece is inspired by Marina Abramović and her work ‘Art Must be Beautiful, Artist Must be Beautiful’.

The project delves into a surreal portrait where I explore makeup and try to fix my appearance and eventually wiping my face with a washcloth. It is an interchanging montage that splits the two long takes to show a comparison and connection between ‘then and now’. My breathing fastens and the lens blurs as I move further from the camera. This is an effect I used to minimise the details, almost symbolising a sense of exhaustion. This was something I improvised in when I practiced my expressions. Being unable to recognise oneself through the mask of aiming for beauty that is not attainable for me. The part of me that tries to hide and remove flaws that are simply a part of my identity. This piece is up to interpretation and has a meaning that can be recognised in accordance with relatability and personal experiences. Nonetheless, the core themes when preparing my inspired portrait piece is the presence of achieving beauty. The desire for it while subsequently becoming a tiresome reminder of life. Expectations on how to appear. As my breathing pace fastens and my mentality overloads, the depth of field is aligned in accordance.

I chose black and white as colour can distract meaning and details when it comes to symbolic pieces. Black and white can be vulnerable and I particularly adore a monochrome appearance. Originally wanting a black fabric backdrop, I sadly had to improvise with paper. When preparing the set, (which is just a small section of my room), I literally clipped the paper to the blinds before the curtains with yarn to hold upwards. I loved the white peeking through which is why there is not a full coverage. Again, this shows that I had a ‘lack of perfection’ and that I had to make beauty with all I had.

The light source was my desk lamp facing from my right side. It’s amazing how monochrome can reduce the need for various light sources, plus I did film at night to assist in its exposure level.

Originally not being exposed to Live Media, I didn’t understand its impact until I further explored and allowed my mind to correlate its own understanding of the pieces. This allows me to challenge my misunderstood standards of media creation. Physical interactions with objects allow viewers to look more into why and what that object does, what it represents and why it is used. Like in Marina Abramović’s, ‘Art Must be Beautiful, Artist Must be Beautiful’, you find that the brush is acting as a prop in accordance to reaching satisfaction, yet unable to attain from frustration. Beauty not being met, all knots needed to be brushed out until the hair never knots again. Where realistically things will never be perfect.