For W3 Curate I wanted to explore how my jewellery is a consistent player in my day-to-day life. I assembled stills from short clips of myself removing, adding & wearing my jewellery. I was hoping to investigate how the jewellery forms a harmonious relationship with my books, as both come into close, physical contact with one another, and both are of high value to me as an individual. If I am to count the jewellery on my body individually, I have 12 pieces – I then decided to introduce another necklace that I sometimes wear, given to me by my mum, to make up the number 13.
Above: projected onto my wall as if to be an ‘exhibition’
In terms of the actual clip, I feel it is unfinished and perhaps unrepresentative of the other 12 books I had previously included. However, I wanted to avoid a ‘cluttered’ look by including all of the books, so maybe it is arguable that the one book represents all 13 of them…
I’m not entirely happy with the outcome, I feel I can still add a lot more to it and probably will. The editing is so rough!! I was definitely overambitious with this week’s brief but I wanted to try something different to my usual PDF spreads.
Hello Em! I’ve looked at your work every week and I have to say I feel like there’s something quite striking about it. There’s a continuous feel and aesthetic – almost nostalgic – that is really pleasant and feels quite personal. Choosing books in the first place was bold, but you managed to work around it, and pairing them with jewelry makes sense as they can both be intimate and valuable items.
I like your editing, though as you mentioned it could be a bit smoother. But I do like the transition effect you added, with the superposition of images.
I wish the books would appear sooner, as they feel a bit disconnected by only being featured half-way through the video. The book, should I say, but it didn’t feel like an issue to me, although it’s a bit of a cheat. Maybe adding some sort of narrative would have helped showing more of them/structuring the video?
Do you ever take the jewels off? I would have enjoyed shots of them where you keep them, or maybe or their own, in relationship with your room, or with/inside books. Or you putting them on? Or taking them off, depending on the order of the pictures. The ones with movement add a nice dynamic, compared to the more static ones.
Anyway this is definitely different from a regular pdf and great attempt at something new!
I hope you keep working on it until you’re satisfied because I see a real potential in the idea.
Hi Lilli, thank you SO much for your comment and apologies I haven’t replied sooner!
Thank you for your compliments, I’m so glad you have recognised the personal nature of my approach to the brief. You’re right, I decided to pair up the jewellery/books as they are both valuable and intimate.
I couldn’t agree more on the suggestion of ‘smoother editing’ and introducing the books (and more of them) earlier on. To be honest something like moving image or film is completely out of my comfort zone, hence why I chose to do it, but also that would explain why the editing is very, very amateur! Haha. I really want to work on making it much more cohesive to cement the nostalgic feeling I’m aiming to evoke.
I’m so grateful that you’ve taken the time to comment and suggest ideas to me, which I will definitely be taking on board. I will also mention that I have also been following your work weekly – it’s so honest, gentle, yet brave. Well done to you and can’t wait to see more!!
Em 🙂
I like that group of photos very much, very beautiful! And there seems to be a mood attached to the photos