Wannamambo
For my Degree Show, my starting point was the creation of a mix of the two catchiest songs according to Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry: Mambo n°5 by Lou Brega and Wannabe by the Spice Girls. I wanted it sung, as a chorus, similar to my Heaven of Faces project. Then again, it made sense to use my own face, but distorted by being made to resemble an alien’s. My different faces are from different stages of my life, which questions the concept of facial recognition on faces of different ages.
When I decided if the viewer should know I used my own face to create my aliens, I realize my project focused more on the loss of my own face, as I am using only images of myself I could find online. It also shows the difficulty of using any face without creating any other references. Using my own, I am only referencing my loss of identity online. I also think the viewer will notice the faces are all similar as coming from the same person, and could guess it is my own, which would allow the viewer to free-associate. I could have changed the title to “self-portrait” to make it clearer but I don’t think it is the main theme of this piece.
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As I was first aiming to project my chorus of faces on five columns, I then realized the idea of a floating face was a core element in my work that I needed to finally really create. Using flat ovals, oscillating according to the structure’s movement, my faces appear to be intentionally bad versions of flat holograms.
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The shininess of the structure allows to blind the viewer from afar when the sun is shining in the Street. It therefore acts in the same way as these intriguing spots of light on Google Earth that conspiracy theorists like to speculate on as UFO sightings, when seen from a higher floor of the building.
My final piece could in the end be resumed in one sentence: my understanding of how aliens would imagine humans singing popular songs.
