The final project was self designed and I decided to make an unusual body sculpture. The sculpture would be divided in half and each side would be different. One side would be an ideal body (six pack abs, muscular) and the other half would be an obese, overweight type of body. The piece would also include a collage of advertisements used in media and pictures of real people. The sculpture has a personal meaning and a meaning that can be used by the entire country.
The inspiration behind my sculpture is the obesity problem in the United States. I wanted to make something that would show people the problem that the country is facing right now. It is supposed to make them aware that the media is constantly lying to people in order to make money. The media only uses people that are closer to having the idealistic look. It is the reason why I wanted to have one side that represents the media’s portrayal of people and one side that portrays people in real life. The sculpture is supposed to show the true side of the problem that many people deny all the time.
I also wanted to make the sculpture for a personal reason which is motivation to change my lifestyle. I am one of the many people that have fallen in the media’s trap. The media shows people having a good time or being happy when at a fast food restaurant. Their advertisement was partially true but they never show the bad side of eating at these places. As I was doing research for the project, I noticed how unhealthy it is to eat at fast food restaurants. I am using this project to realize the negative effects of the media and hopefully change my eating lifestyle and amount of TV that I watch.
The sculpture is divided into two separate pieces; the collage and body sculpture. The collage has magazine covers, clothing store advertisements and pictures of real people. It is shaped like the United States because it is supposed to represent the country in which the problem is present. The collage has color and black and white photos to have a contrast between people who are in reality and people who are closer to having the ideal body. The ratio of color (ideal people) pictures to black and white (obese, overweight) pictures is representing the percentage of obese people in the US which is about one third of the population.
The body sculpture is the main piece of the project. It is made from insulation foam and is divided in half. Half of the sculpture is representing the way media portrays people. The abs and muscles are visible on this side of the sculpture. The other half is representing an obese person. Originally, I had planned for the sculpture to be smooth and have a finished look. I realized that people are not perfect and have flaws. The sculpture has some dents and holes because of the foam. The meaning behind these details is that no matter how perfect someone tries to be, they will always have some sort of flaws. It is also suppose to make the audience more aware that there is a problem present with the imperfections on the sculpture instead of having a smooth surface which would be telling a lie.
I thought that the sculpture was very successful. It was able to show all of my intentions without having a lot of text. Although the sculpture showed the intentions, there was still room for improvement. The design of the sculpture could have been differently. It would have been interesting to see a full body sculpture representation of the original sculpture. It would be good to try and make a sculpture that could show the same intentions without the use of pictures or text. The project went well because it made people aware of the current problem in the United States.
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