Dis Miss

DIS MISS  –  

June 2015  –  89 x 103 cms  –

Six A3 Photopolymer Relief Prints, Charcoal Drawing, Plywood,

Paint, Gypsum Board and Paper.

“When making this work I was thinking about the relationship we have with our bodies and how some people are unable to see their own body as others see them.  There is an anxiety disorder that causes a person to have a distorted view of how they look and to spend a lot of time worrying about their appearance.  There are many cases of, what is called,

body dysmorphia

and it is becoming more prevalent amongst young girls, in particular, who, when bombarded with images of ‘perfect’ bodies online and in the media, regard their own ‘normal’ bodies as imperfect or gross.

This line of thought also led me to think about the use of the prefix ‘dis’ when used to express a negative;

distort                                                         dishonest

dislike                                                         disrespect

disengage                                                    disbelieve

disappear                                                    dismember

disable                                                        disappear

distinguish                                                 disperse

disbar                                                         distrait

and the colloquial term ‘to diss’ means to treat someone with disrespect, or

to                                   dis miss                              them.

And all of these words can be used to describe the effects of body dysmorphia.”

The six hinged doors are photopolymer relief prints of ‘normal’ body parts being clutched by anxious hands, and these open onto a charcoal drawing of an anorexic woman’s body.  The inside of these doors cast a fluorescent glow onto the wasted body beneath, that, coupled with the words written on them, are used to colour negative attitudes towards the body.