Conceptual Portrait: My Face For One Week
When contemplating self-expression, I believe that the manner in which we present ourselves to the world can take on various forms. Our bodies serve as vessels for our thoughts and emotions. For many individuals, makeup is a tool that enables us to express ourselves externally. Personally, I view makeup as a means of highlighting my internal confidence and enhancing my features to feel more self-assured. There is a symbolic element to this practice as I remove my makeup at the end of each day with a wipe. Each wipe represents a day in my life, and the amount of makeup removed reflects the level of confidence or desire to feel special I had for that day. While these wipes are individual pieces, together they represent how our internal qualities manifest in our external appearance. I hope that even those who do not wear makeup can relate to this idea of self-awareness in how we present ourselves to others in the world.
Stella Ella Ola
This is a recorded audio of my roommates and I playing “Stella, Ella, Ola”, a clapping game played by many throughout my childhood. There were 5 females playing. Within the audio, you can hear the girls singing the song with an underlying consistent clapping rhythm throughout. Players were asked to sit in a circle and overlay their hands. When the players count down from 5 at the end of the song, the player’s hand that gets clapped is the one that is eliminated. The game ends when there is only one player left. I asked that we play this game on the floor, and for the participants to sing what they could remember. You can hear the shuffling on the carpet and subtle laughter throughout the game, all things that brought me back to the nostolgic feeling of what playing this game was like as a child. This piece is intended to make the listener feel a sense of nostalgia while listening to the recording, potentially even making them feel like they are in the room playing with us.
A Kilometre in my Student House
1 kilometre. 1000 metres. 100,000 centimetres. We walk them, run them, transport them on wheels, in the air, or perhaps on a track. Over the past 3 years of my life, I have thought about where a lot of my unnoticed kilometres lie; in my own student house. This is a place where I have had experienced some of the happiest days of my life, and the saddest days of my life. This is a place where I have danced for hours, and also stressfully paced around before writing my exam. I walk around the kitchen putting together some of the best meals I have ever made. I walk around my bedroom getting ready for the bar, stressfully yet eagerly between my closet and makeup desk. I walk across the living room to reenact a funny situation that happened on the weekend. The walking in this house is not just a dirty pair of socks after 1000 meters on my feet, but it is a literal walk down memory lane. Perhaps maybe a wake-up call to wash and vacuum the floors, but I will not remember my dirty floors, I will remember the situations and memories that got them to this point.
Making Buttons
