Skull with bubble wrap and staples
Skull with bubble wrap, wrapped with twine
Skull with foil
Skull with clingfilm
From the wrappings explored in this first part of this exercise, I went on to consider how our clothing influences our perceptions of ourselves and each other; how we use clothes both consciously and unconsciously to identify with particular groups (cultural, religious, social, relating to our musical tastes or interests) – in particular, how skin “wraps” the body, the influence of skin (young vs old, smooth vs wrinkled, blemished, scarred, pierced or tatooed, colour). over our perceptions and responses to both ourselves others.
Starting with a polystyrene skull, I explored a variety of materials, experimenting with these unconventional “skins”, seeing how they varied the appearance of the skull beneath but without changing the skull.
Likewise, people are all the same beneath the skin – our “wrappings” do not change our essential commonality as human beings, whatever our age, race, ethnicity, gender or background.