WEEK 3 – ANALYSIS – TASK 2 _ HATE ZINE

HATE ZINE ISSUE 2 – Featuring work by Maisie Cousins, Stephanie Wilson, and a cover shot by Martin Parr, Le Voguer Couyet and Carlos Clark 

“Art, music, fashion – anything which is now classed as a ‘creative industry’ –  has been completely taken over by those who can afford to participate. And by participate, I mean study, work within and control what is produced”– Luisa Le Voguer Couyet 

This quote is what had made me intrigued by this article found on Dazed Digital. I was scrolling through suggested articles after researching Tom Wood’s photography and found these images which struck me.  

All of these stuck out to me as they’re somewhat conventional and unconventional. They use everyday objects, natural fruits and people’s bodies while also showing dramatic poses, sexual or phallic symbolism as well as imagery which could be deemed as uncomfortable. This inspires me as I love work which looks uncomfortable, unconventional or weird as I find it more interesting than something extremely beautiful. Especially when the body is within these images as I find the body particularly intriguing. In addition to this it also makes me want to incorporate more objects or natural things in my own artwork as I usually have something with less elements than these photographs. Researching into the themes that I am going to explore and seeing what objects and symbols I could include would push my work further and improve it greatly.

 

Hate zine showcases bodies in baked beans, fruit splattered over someone’s breasts which immediately looks like blood to me, condoms filled with egg yolks and greasy oily skin with leaves stuck to it. All of these show different textures and feelings which would usually feel uncomfortable, while tackling issues such as underrepresentation of how sex can be shown within the publishing/print industry. It’s 2020 and sex can still be whitewashed, ableist and heteronormative whereas we need to be more aware of how the lack of representation of these different minorities can make these people not only undereducated but could cause dangerous situations as they would have less of an education on something that they should have been taught in school.  

I’m glad there is more platforms which allow more of a voice to show different bodies as part of their ethos. I had seen a lot of images previously which were trying to be provocative while showing fruit with fingers inside or something attempting to be controversial, but the image had been overdone in my opinion and wasn’t adding anything to the representation of sex that they were trying to produce.  

“Personally, I’m bored of the satin-sheet, clean-shaven, lacy underwear, Hollywood porn depiction of sex. We all expel fluid from various orifices, we shit and piss and bleed and grow hair. It shouldn’t be something that is gross, and we should not be ashamed to talk candidly about sex.” I’m obsessed with this quote by Louise Le Voguer Couyet who explains, rightfully so, that the perspective of sex that we see, especially in magazines and TV is far too clean, everyone is perfectly airbrushed and clean, nothing “embarrassing”, uncomfortable or unconventional happens when in real life there’s much more to it which is what this magazine does right.