For many years theorists have been looking into and arguing the different scientific and sociological theories and facts behind gender. One of them being feminist Simone De Beauvoir who talks about the idea distuingishing between biological sex (which is ‘natural’) and gender (which is social and cultural), she argues that there is no such thing as a fixed identity and gender comes before sex. Many people argue the science between gender and sex and it is with our clothes that we create our own identity rather than what is the biology underneath it. We as humans are assigned a gender at birth but it is the clothes we wear and the way we accessorise, how we live, our personality traits that make up our gender identity rather than the science behind it. Through researching into gender and the different theories behind it i was inspired by the scientific ideas behind it and how this is not what makes us who we are. When I was reading the book ‘Crossing Gender Boundaries’ by Andrew Reilly and Ben Barry, this particular quote inspired me “Gender is the social and political understanding of bodies based on cultural norms, whereas sex is assumed to be a fleshy, corporal, biological bodily essence: people learn masculinity and femininity but they are assigned at birth as male or female”.
One artist who particularly inspired me when it came to the route of science in art is artist Michele Banks. Michele Banks is a self taught painter who creates art exploring themes from science and medicine, ranging from visuals of viruses and bacteria to cells. She looks into how these organisms affect humans, and how we affect them, through climate change, antibiotic use and other impacts on the earth. To achieve these visuals she uses watercolour as her ideal medium, she says that the reasoning for this is because watercolour can be transparent or translucent, allowing for her to hint at what is happening beneath the surace. Another reasoning for her using watercolour is because it naturally flows into fractal patterns which represents and looks like patterns seen in the nervous and circulatory systems. This piece of art work on the left specifically inspired me within this project. The piece is called ‘Portrait of a Human’, and it was created to express thoughts about how humans relate to each other. In this piece each of the 16 panels depicts a type of cell found in the humanbody – blood, bone, brain, eye , hair, skin and muscle cells and more. When talking about this piece Banks explains that “Portrait of a human, explores that theme of connection from another angle. A lot of art focuses on individuality and personal identity, emphasizing the differences between people. I wanted to make something that used science to get across the idea of our commonality, how humans, while each unique, are at the same time essentially the same.” She also goes on further to explain that this picture is of you, or your neighbour or someone you’ve never met. I feel that this view on the science of humans is really interesting and relates well to my project. The idea that although each person has their own individual identity and style, when it comes down to it we are all the same. In terms of non-binary, no matter our gender or how we present ourselves we are all the same. Within my art and this project i plan to convey this idea using science like visuals, that wether you are gender fluid, non-binary and more or not we are no different.
These are all visuals I have been inspired by which I found through looking on Pinterest and researching into different artists. The artists behind these visuals are Bruce Reilly, Klari Reis and Michele Banks. Each artist uses a variety of different techniques and materials to get these outcomes, ranging from paints and resin to ink and watercolour. My plan from here is to experiment with different ways to recreate these cell like visuals which I plan to do with dripping food colouring into water.
