Etam Cru - Aht Beyond the Canvass

 Last night I was just casually scrolling through the internet as one does and I came across the most amazing picture. Graffiti drawn on a wall of a beautiful lady in a jam jar. I am her now.
So, this morning I did a little snooping around the rest of the web and discovered the amazing artworks of the Etam Cru (Etam, Sainer and Bezt). Comprised of three amazing artists that comb the streets painting their whimsical characters and scenes among the dreary everyday houses, of what looks like Spain. heir work is vast and beautiful. You can see some of my favourites from the three artist below but you can check them out here and see for yourself.

 

mmm such pretty. so inspired.
I want these on mugs actually.

&Kathrynwhat

The Body Uncomfortable Conclusions (Part 1)

This experiment of the body Uncomfortable has been an interesting experience. It has really made me think about what impact I have on the world around me, my surroundings both emotional and physical, the people I interact with and the different Timelines that can be created when decisions are made and The Space Time Continuum is disrupted (or not).

This is a strange experiment to have completed and it will probably never be fully finished, for we are uncomfortable everyday, and no one is ever truly comfortable with everything. We as humans have the tendency to lie to ourselves more times than necessary and most of those lies include things about the Body Image or our Self Esteem. We use social media to get out of ever really having true and meaningful conversations and if they ever really are meaningful, doesn't the fact that they are electronic or devised or timed appropriately mean that they can never truly be real.

You might even ask if this Blog is real. If anything is ever real or is this all just an elaborate fabrication of my life being lived by someone who isn't really me - I might just be 'catfishing' you. Are movies really movies about real people or are they all fabricated to make as much money as possible. Are documentaries factual or is the simple fact that the Documenter is documenting having an effect so great on the story that it changes everything and the story no longer exists in its purist form.

Life is truly meta, and never really what we expect or what we want it to be.

Everything is a lie and nothing is real.

Nothing is Sound.

Here is a GIF of a Vine of a video of a Flipbook of a GIF of a video of a roller coaster.

Got that? No? Not quite? Well, give yourself a few minutes or so and think about it again. But after you've worked it out, do yourself a favour and check your watch. You’ll find you’re standing at the nexus of the end of the universe, where time stands still. (The Daily Dot)

&Kathrynwhat

#4 Emotional Spaces: The Body (Un)Comfortable

This is the last video in the series of my Space Intervention. It documents the impact I have on my personal space by taking it up with my body matter. It examines the spaces within my body space, with a close look at spaces like the space between my fingers, or the spaces between my forearm and my upper are. How do these spaces change and manipulate themselves through movement - how do my emotions have an impact on the space my body creates and impacts and how do my emotional reactions determine the kind of space I take up.

This is a particularly interesting topic,because from the time we are small our body language and what we do with our bodies indicates our mood and how we feel. his kind of language pre-dates the spoken word and means that this Occupation of Space and how the body reacts to space is a primal instinct.

You can find my other Videos here, here and here, or you can continue to read the Chronicles of The Body Uncomfortable here.

&Kathrynwhat

#3 Up close, but is it personal: The Body (Un)comfortable

The Third Experiment has been to determine how Other People react when someone is uncomfortably (if so) close in their business while they are trying to go about their business.

I started off just filming small spaces of people, like their ears or their feet - this didn't really get a reaction from people, as it mostly went unnoticed. I then moved on the trying to get more up in their business, to see if I could get more of a reaction from the, as I do not like people up in this business.This directly correlates to my personal space issues that often do not occur with other people, and then people think I'm either strange or rude or in a bad mood when I express this feeling. Some people found it to be quite annoying, and didn't know what to do, while others embraced it. Many people we're put off my the idea and immediately panicked asking what and why I was doing this

This was also uncomfortable for me at first because I don't like getting into other peoples business, although after a few minutes,  became more relaxed and was able to take my experiment to another level - approaching strangers and not just my immediate company.

You can see the first two experiments here and here or you can read about the entire Space Intervention here.

&Kathrynwhat

#2 Me in the Other: The Body (Un)comfortable

The second Body Uncomfortable Intervention experiment I have been conducting, is how I influence other peoples space by existing, occupying, exerting my influence on and manipulating their space. This is the Second Experiment.

This is a particularly interesting experiment when one considers the universe and the essence of existence. 

How do my actions influence others?

For the first few clips that I filmed, I had instructed the people on what to do, and how to act - their reactions were calculated, having had the time to become aware of what was happening and conduct themselves accordingly.

For the second group of people, I asked people if I could film them, I did not explain why or what it was for. In some, you can see I filmed as the person was asking the questions as to 'Why?' and 'What for...?'. The first experiment shows that these reactions would have been different had I explained Why and What for.

All these reactions have been influenced by my presence in some way.

This particular phenomenon, and how we act and react within our space is hugely fascinating. If you are familiar with the Space Time Continuum, or have any idea about what string theory is then you will understand what I am talking about when I say; Multiple Realities. 

If I was to not exist and not be performing these interventions, what would be happening?
If I had chosen to go a different route with this project what would be happening?
If I had not been born at all, how would all this have played out?
How do my choices and actions influence the lives of others and myself based on decisions?

The list of questions is endless...

You can see the other experiments here and here or you can read about the entire Space Intervention here.

&Kathrynwhat

#1 External Space: The Body (Un)comfortable

Over the past six days (May 7 - May 13) I have been exploring My External Space, and how it is affected through both my existence and how it then alters my existence, this is the First Experiment.

This is both the space that I live in and occupy, like my house, my bed and my immediate day to day surroundings, as well as all the things that immediately influence my outward appearance.

This has been the first step in exploring external space for me.
This experiment was pretty easy, but also pretty hard. It was easy to understand my own space, and what it means to be a living entity which takes up said space but also to understand how my space is also then an influence on the space I occupy. This is also true for how things and objects, that I occupy in terms of space, can have an impact on me and my personal space.

For example: I occupy my bed room - it is filled with things that take up space. I then have a claim to that space, as it is that of myself and thing that define me in the kind and manner of space that they take up.
I use make-up to change and alter my outward appearance, thereby using an element, that also occupy's space, to alter how I occupy my own space, by using it's space in my space to change it.

This is a video of such an experiment:

This then leads to my next experiment of my influence on other peoples personal and immediate space.

You can see the other experiments here and here or you can read about the entire Space Intervention here.

&Kathrynwhat

Foodbelly: The Body (Un)Comfortable

This is Lee Price and she painte really realistic paintings of people and food.

I eally like her work, and have chosen to showcase it in my Space Intervention of 10 days (You can read more about my space intervention here) because it directly deals with how we deal with our body and our emotions. While I couldn't find much about Lee Price and why she paints people eating in baths, I have made some of my own conclusions about her work. 

To me, this is a very accurate representation of how I personally treat my body, and while its not in a bath, I do spend all my free time in my bed. My bed is my safe space, where no one can go but me. It is all mine and I can do with that space what I want - in this case, fill my inner space with food. This is a topic that I specifically relate to because of my relationship with food, and how it has morphed and moulded over the years to what it is today (even though it is still pretty up and down).

Each of her art works has a different emotion attached to it - happiness, boredom, sadness, over whelmed, pleasure, apathy - and each has a specific reaction in terms of how to resolve these issues, the most popular choice being solitude and comfort food.

In my coming interventions I will be exploring the importance of food and its effect on my space and my body. How are communal meals different from ones alone na dhow are meals because you're hungry different from those when you just want to enjoy the food. These are all very different ideals on how food influences your personal and immediate space and the effect it has on the way that you then appreciate or adapt space.

Out of Sight - A Critical (Studies) Look: The Body (Un)Comfortable

An internal struggle often goes unnoticed - we see this every day with more and more people struggling with depression, anxiety, anorexia and bulimia. These kinds of mental states can often be shoved off or not taken seriously enough, while most of the time not noticed at all. We as a generation have to start standing up to this and trying to make a difference. The media an especially Gossip Media is just one of the issues surrounding this topic. We need to start taking responsibility for ourselves and not taking what the media has to say blindly. 

These photographs by Laura Zankoul are picturesque scenes of avoidance and an escapism from the horrors of everyday life when suffering from one of these diseases. She captures the whimsical essence of what it must be like to have to fight with your inner self and you mind on a daily basis.

Laura Zankoul’s practice of fine arts photography primarily appeared as a need to escape the binding life of the cubicle during her first full-time job. This need to evade reality was translated in her imagery: her compositions are contemporary fairy tales, which explore the charm and mystery of the human psyche. Whimsical and playful, they represent an attempt to invent new worlds, to push against the boundaries of our reality and escape the monotony of everyday life. The characters inhabiting Zankoul’s work are anonymous and timeless, universal symbols existing within a fantastical and surreal landscape.

Tea Cups, is one of her collections, where the heroine is trapped, yet transported to a whimsical land of imagination and wonder through the Giant Tea Cup. It is a place to hide and yet a place to dream of all the wonderful imaginings that a person could dream of. While filled with many opportunities the outcomes could be detrimental and unwelcome.

The Unseen, a collection of conceptual photographs the perfectly embody the notion of having ones self always half hidden, being unable to reveal the truth because it is too much for you or others to bare. It symbolises fear and hardship of what you are afraid of sharing, while sometimes what is hidden is positive, when one cannot express this, the deep seated anger and fear often can over whelm the holder of such a precious secret making it increasingly hard to reveal and work through it.

&Kathrynwhat