Into the Orifice: Charlotte Emerson writes about creating the MOUTHY lead image
In March, Charlotte Emerson pitched a concept for the lead image for MOUTHY as part of a Camberwell UAL project. We loved her colourful and cartoony fimo mouths with architectural figures that posed on and around them, looking inside. Here Charlotte writes about what inspired this idea, and the process of developing it into a final artwork.
After spending my final year at Camberwell, moving my practice into the world of 3-dimensional illustration, I was really excited to apply this learning to a ‘real world’ project. When Science Gallery London approached us with a brief to create the lead image for MOUTHY my mind was instantly filled with the possibilities I could create.
I approached this project with the notion that it was very unlikely for my work to be chosen for the final image, a large group of my class were also working on this task, and so from the beginning I focused my time on really pushing the limits of style and exploring my own skill base. I had fun taking inspiration from my own mouth, looking closely at my many piercings and how I could potentially include them in my models.
I've always been drawn to tattoos and piercings. I got my first tongue piercing a few days after my 18th birthday and it spiralled on from there. I now have six piercings in and around my mouth – two on my tongue, three on my bottom lip and one hidden smiley underneath my top lip. I’ve started running out of space! I like how showing off my mouth piercings is optional – most of them are quite hidden.
After hearing the MOUTHY brief I instantly knew I was going to use Fimo. I wanted to create pieces that were interesting and drew the viewer in, without worrying too much about creating images that would be classed as typically beautiful. Using models also allowed me to explore the use of photography in my work, an area that I feel is important to my practice, especially as I move further into 3D pieces. I constructed a small fold-out homemade photography booth which I could take around with me and set up to shoot my final images. It also allowed me to produce some really fun stop motion sequences from the comfort of my kitchen.
I made a variety of oddly coloured and weirdly shaped interchangeable Fimo tongues and mouths and added small scale figures to the scenes. I liked the way that the tiny people created a sense of intrigue, played with our perception of scale and almost transformed my mouths into a suggestion of a gallery themselves.
I was shocked and absolutely over the moon to be chosen by Science Gallery London to produce the lead image for their MOUTHY season. It was great to have a group of people so enthusiastic about my work - other than my family and friends.
Working on MOUTHY has been a fantastic experience. The input from a professional team has been invaluable and the project has made me push myself.
A surprising outcome for me was discovering that mishaps can lead to creativity! When I enlarged my Fimo mouth the clay drooped and sagged while being cooked, at first I thought this iteration was a write-off but as I played around with the “mistake” mouth I realised that the less perfect shape I had accidently created was more interesting, and it actually came to be the final chosen form.
Playing around with the figurines was also fun. To adjust the poses of the people I heated them up using a lighter until I could bend them into the positions we wanted.
As a follow-on from this project I toyed with the idea of creating an adult playground as part of the MOUTHY open call. I’ve become unexpectedly fascinated by this topic and the benefits of play, and I couldn’t escape the idea that adults should all play more. As a result, when returning to my Final Major Project at University this was the route I pursued.
Part of what has made this process so exciting for me has been the many different people who have been involved in the alterations and development of the piece. I am a great believer in cross-discipline collaboration. This project’s outcome is a great example of how multiple inputs can manifest themselves to inspire work that would have never have been created if I did it entirely alone.
My final year exhibition, “Look Here”, will be opening at Camberwell University (Wilson Road, SE5) on 18 June, and will be running for a week. Alongside my final Adult Play Frame I hope to also exhibit images from my MOUTHY experience.
