I began my journey by looking at various artists that painted crowds and showed deep emotion through their work.  One artist that caught my attention was Bill Viola.  Viola is contemporary video artist and is most famous for his work titled “The Passions”.  I was inspired by the strong emotions displayed by the characters and decided to recreate the intense emotion through my own photoshoot.  I told my model to be spontaneous and react in a number of different ways using facial expressions and body language.  Combined with a continuous shooting mode I was able to capture some interesting shots that displayed a strong emotional connection.

 

 

After another ‘crowd’ photoshoot, I decided that I needed to be a bit more imaginative in order to engage my viewer both physically and emotionally.  Consequently I looked into events that showed a link with crowded claustrophobic spaces and emotion.  The event that fitted this description best was the Holocaust that occurred during WWII.  After researching the catastrophic period, I wanted to recreate something from the Holocaust that would give something for the viewer to react to and in some ways, relate to.   Similarly, I also looked into the film “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” to recognize the reactions of people within a confined space such as a gas chamber and to understand how people would have been dressed. 

 

When looking at proposal ideas I created a mind-map and this allowed me to see all my ideas together and pick and choose from them to come up with something that would have a much bigger impact than any of my other work.  My idea was to use an antique-looking wardrobe as the confined space and have my final piece inside it.  The wardrobe itself was bought for £5.00 off of EBay and had some resemblance to a coffin which was an added bonus to my theme of work.  After conducting another photoshoot using models to react as if they were trapped and couldn’t get out, I’d decided on my final images for my final piece. 

 

The painting on the door shows another figure looking up with a distressed look on her face.  She is gripping the door frame and this in itself creates a frightening atmosphere.  By painting her hair across her face indicates this desperation and the need to escape.  The other two paintings will be attached to the sides of the wardrobe to connect all the images together and create a larger impact. 

 

I created my soundtrack using three different pieces of software and approximately 25 different sound effects to create a ‘story’.  The soundtrack starts off with heavy rain and thunderstorms marking the beginning of something bad.  Afterwards the rain calms and this is followed by ‘classical German piano’ to confuse the viewer.  This was done purposely as in the Concentration Camps classical music was played over a tannoy to drown out the screams of people being gassed and prevent other inmates panicking and thinking there was something wrong.  As the piece continues I added screams and crying babies to indicate that people of all ages were subject to the cruelties of the Holocaust.  At the peak of the soundtrack I included sharp screams and smashing glass to resemble members of the SS breaking into homes to collect ‘undesirables’ and take them away to concentration camps.  I hope my soundtrack will engage the viewer and allow them to absorb all the different elements my final piece has to offer. 

To create an uncertain atmosphere I purchased some self-adhesive LED lights that I intended to stick on the inside of the walls.  This will add to the feeling of uncertainty and give the viewer an impression of what the crowded gas chambers may have looked like.  I also wanted to keep a strong link with ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ and therefore decided to purchase some blue striped material that I would lay screwed up on the floor of the wardrobe and have hanging from the top to cover the music player.  I hoped this would dramatize my work even further and create something that the viewer could touch and feel and consequently have a relationship with the figures in my final piece, but more widely, the victims of the Holocaust. 

When painting my final piece I used a dark colour scheme and tried to paint my figures as if they had been beaten up before they had been sent to the gas chamber.  I hoped this would engage the viewer further and allow them to understand not only the feelings of the people in the chamber but the physical appearance as well.    Apart from the focal point of each painting (the figure) I used large expressive brush strokes to define the area the viewer should be focusing on and make it seem as if they were insignificant.  This plays an important part in relating to the victims of the Holocaust and the Nazis who gassed them. 

 

In conclusion I hope my final piece conveys the strong message and atmosphere that I intended it to and creates something that symbolises an important event.  Whilst still keeping a link with Bill Viola (strong facial expressions), the Holocaust and “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” I feel that my final piece displays some of the horrors of claustrophobic crowds and engages the viewer in both a physical, emotional and audio approach.