After scanning over a few works relating to pregnancy, such as Lucian Freud's 'Kate Moss - Naked Portrait' (2002) and Damien Hirsts 'Verity' (2012) it appeared to me that I want to show my pregnant body, I'm proud of it, as seems the subject in Hirst's work. Throughout this work I aim to create everything within context, relating materials, time duration, everything to my pregnancy.
I have been recording photos of my changing body, however, covered up by clothes. I felt this didn't show my true changing pregnant body. Without taking nude photos, I wanted to give a raw image showing my body, this led me on to printing.
I used my own body to create a 'freeze' moment, capturing the history of my pregnancy, this been very unique as everyone's is different. The use of water represents my choice to have a water birth. I sprayed myself with water, then pressed it against a sheet of brown paper, in order to attempt to gain a visible print. I then documented the fresh prints through photos, then let them dry. The prints, once dried, left a wrinkled effect on the paper, faintly outlining the original print. This temporary definitive print represents the temporary state of pregnancy, however, the wrinkles represent the somewhat permanent effects, such as stretch marks.
I then moved on to use bio oil on my body to print onto the brown paper. I have been told to use this to help eliminate stretch marks. The print was very definitive, which I liked, and shows a feminine pregnant body in a tasteful way. The print has not faded over a period of time, due to the paper absorbing the oil well. This print provided a recognisable shape/silhouette with minimal detail. The paper did not wrinkle, which illustrates the effects the bio oil is supposed to have on the human body.
To develop this further, I would print on an alternative material, to ensure that it is within my context, as the brown paper has no significance that I can think of yet, other than providing a material that would absorb different liquids.
