Emulation Project

Some of the best pieces that have been made were based partially or wholly on preexisting pieces. It is also said that imitation is the purest form of flattery. Irregardless of whether or not these are true, for this project we were tasked to choice an artist or group of artists or style of art and then attempt to emulate it in our own work.

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In Modern Society, the human body has become an intrinsically sexual, fetishised ideal. Modern culture seems to seems to obsess over the perfect shape and its gendered appeal.

In the 1970s Allen Teger did a photographic project entitled Bodyscapes, in which he decided to refashion the sensual object that is the human body into a seductive landscape. The curves of a woman's breasts become rolling hills; the masculine flatness of a man's back becomes a the setting for a motorcycle race.

In my emulation of the self-same work, I decided to keep with the concept of 'the body as landscape' but to take the project's impetus in a different direction. Instead of embellishing the sensual nature of the body, with my models I tried to remove their inherent sexiness/sexualized gender; effectively trying to dehumanize them. I also choose to replace Teger's vintage plastic toys with stuffed animal pandas — the reasoning behind which is that the panda is often caricatured by the uninformed public as a docile and innocent. The inclusion of the cuddly panda then changes the nude from an abstract human form to a surreal landscape.

In this project the supremely innocent figure is presented on the naked body to explore preconceptions and perceptions; it is impossible to view and image and not make judgments and conclusions about it, but why?

Scanned Prints:
To be added
emmulation_image1_finalscan_print.jpg
emmulation_image2_finalscan_print.jpg
emmulation_image3_finalscan_print.jpg
emmulation_image4_finalscan_print.jpg

Scanned Negatives:




Project negatives: Emulation Project
Due to the intimate/graphic nature of the project, the project negatives are not posted publicly - if you are interested in seeing the negatives, please send me an email.