Process 2.5

We had an epiphany today! After going to Lowes and trying out the platform idea, we had doubts. It wasn't seeming stable enough, especially the way people would walk onto it and have to shift their weight to lay down with our piece. And that was concerning to us, as it would conflict with our idea of a comforting, relaxing, and soothing place of our creation.

Then...the epiphany! We had a 'plan c' all along, but in all the hustle and bustle of last class, we just forgot about it until today! The cubby space in the hallway of the third floor! We had dismissed the idea previously because the grad students who had work up were never around for us to ask about it. But, another grad student gave us their phone numbers and they were actually taking down their piece this evening!

We did a mock installation with our piece and we absolutely love it in that space. The aspect ratio (for lack of better term) of it is ideal, as it's an intimate width to allow for one person at a time to occupy the space with our body pillow piece. And, the way we have it situated, it lends to people laying with the pillow and simply looks comfortable and appealing. Additionally, I love the height of it, where it's not too tall, but more elevated as a bed or futon would be, and really defines our space and makes it a clear installation, instead of imposing our denotation of a space into just a normal room.

Conceptually as we have previously noted in process posts, we are aiming to create a comforting space, with an emphasis on our body pillow object. This installation deals with the ideas of:

-comforting (as in being physically comfortable and feeling comforted)
-nurturing, soothing, relaxing
-possibly underlying suggestion of childhood - when would you cuddle or lay with someone that has breasts in that way
-also possibly underlying to do with motherhood - this body pillow could be seen as this abstracted soothing, consistent mother figure
-letting yourself relax into the space - could be seen as letting your guard down, allowing for vulnerability
-vulnerability also relates back to childhood and innocence
-innocence can also be seen in our use of white sheets and the cream color of the body pillow is a reference to skin
-thinking about what conceptually body pillows are used for and in what context they are used and what they're evocative of
-this comforting iteration is a development from our last project which was extremely uncanny and sterile/verging on clinical. We're interested in seeing the different interactions and reactions from viewers when our breasts are presented in this other direction. It's exciting to think of what differences in approach and interaction might occur with this iteration, especially after seeing the variety of the last one.

It's interesting to think about making these once uncanny breasts on display into a source of comfort, like taking an uncomfortable object and making it the source of comfort. Because before they were mounted and uncovered and in your face, which created a much more uncomfortable connotation around these objects, and now, taking that source of uncomfortable feelings and transforming it into now the main source of comfort in our new installation. And I think there's something to be said not only as the pieces individually, but how they transform from one iteration to the next as well, when taking into consideration the consistent "main attraction."