The Face of Taboo
“The Face of Taboo”
To visualise a ‘face’ for taboos, by learning about a female maskers taboo filled life story, to present acceptance and understanding of the very nature of taboo.
Everyday we are becoming more accepting and understanding to a point where taboos are showing up on newsfeeds and portable devices. We can look at taboos on our way to work. Taboos are losing their intensity, probably through overexposure and the desensitising nature of content available today, for some of us it is almost becoming a daily occurrence to witness, speak about or take part in some kind of taboo.
This multi platform installation plays on intrigue and self-investigation, commenting not on a single chosen taboo but on the nature of taboo itself. I chose female masking because of its obvious visual and sexual taboos I knew that this would allow the use of layers and a chance to present a deeper concept than surface value. I wanted to learn from the beginning of someone’s experience with this subculture so I could fully understand the choices made and the stigma that came with it. Only by understanding the origin could I make the connection to the contemporary nature of taboos.
With the on going debate and issues surrounding the Transgender community at the moment I wanted to explore an interesting tangent from this and discover through this subculture the root of how taboos can manifest and what this may look like. I was to research, work with and talk to the biggest name in the female maskers community, T-Vyrus, for nine months, to really understand the origin of what taboo really means to a person. I knew I wanted to present it in such a way that the audience goes through the thought process I did, judgement, understanding, re-evaluation and acceptance.
Tolerance is becoming a cemented rule to follow, we all seem to believe we abide by this but when faced with taboos most of us will still have a moment of misinformed judgement.
This installation compiles all the components of a taboo, the forbidden, the outlawed, the banned, the prohibited, the illicit, the misunderstood and bares them all but surprisingly through the face we would understand and accept first.
‘The ‘face’ of taboo’ plays with the audience’s fear of being intolerant, it forces them to apply taboo to the subject due to the mask which acts as a decoy for judgement, until the audience realise it is not the mask that is the face of taboo but the young boys.
This can be done in a light or dark room depending on the space and atmosphere desired.
To visualise a ‘face’ for taboos, by learning about a female maskers taboo filled life story, to present acceptance and understanding of the very nature of taboo.
Everyday we are becoming more accepting and understanding to a point where taboos are showing up on newsfeeds and portable devices. We can look at taboos on our way to work. Taboos are losing their intensity, probably through overexposure and the desensitising nature of content available today, for some of us it is almost becoming a daily occurrence to witness, speak about or take part in some kind of taboo.
This multi platform installation plays on intrigue and self-investigation, commenting not on a single chosen taboo but on the nature of taboo itself. I chose female masking because of its obvious visual and sexual taboos I knew that this would allow the use of layers and a chance to present a deeper concept than surface value. I wanted to learn from the beginning of someone’s experience with this subculture so I could fully understand the choices made and the stigma that came with it. Only by understanding the origin could I make the connection to the contemporary nature of taboos.
With the on going debate and issues surrounding the Transgender community at the moment I wanted to explore an interesting tangent from this and discover through this subculture the root of how taboos can manifest and what this may look like. I was to research, work with and talk to the biggest name in the female maskers community, T-Vyrus, for nine months, to really understand the origin of what taboo really means to a person. I knew I wanted to present it in such a way that the audience goes through the thought process I did, judgement, understanding, re-evaluation and acceptance.
Tolerance is becoming a cemented rule to follow, we all seem to believe we abide by this but when faced with taboos most of us will still have a moment of misinformed judgement.
This installation compiles all the components of a taboo, the forbidden, the outlawed, the banned, the prohibited, the illicit, the misunderstood and bares them all but surprisingly through the face we would understand and accept first.
‘The ‘face’ of taboo’ plays with the audience’s fear of being intolerant, it forces them to apply taboo to the subject due to the mask which acts as a decoy for judgement, until the audience realise it is not the mask that is the face of taboo but the young boys.
This can be done in a light or dark room depending on the space and atmosphere desired.
Comments 0
Say something