SKIN CANVAS

2015

An attempt to comment on the debate about whether tattoos could be art. The idea behind the work is surrounding the notion of translation. By taking on the role as a painter, I translated whatever a painter would use into the tools of the tattoo artist. Skin as canvas, needles as brushes, and ink as paint; with one difference being that the canvas moves. Each step of this project was modified from tattooing to fit the fine art world so to remove the human factor from the equation, and focus on the medium. In doing so, one major alteration was the canvas frame. To fit the concept, the frame itself moved to mimic specific movements of the human body. With the 'skin' wrapped around the frame and moved, wrinkles and creases portray similar characteristics of an actual human body part. The markings are to emphasise the relationship between body and design.

Full progress: http://finalfks.tumblr.com/tagged/progress

Every aspect of this project is fabricated by me: frames, skin sheets, and needles.

Torso: 60cm x 50cm

Leg: 100cm x 50cm

Skin sheets made of platsil gel 10, Neills Materials