Diana Simanovic
My major project was inspired by the ancient Greek myth of the Medusa. It looks at the timeless nature of abuse of women and how this myth has evolved from a female character turned into a ‘monster’ to its many contemporary evolutions. Susan R. Bowers' essay " Medusa and the Female Gaze" provides a contemporary interpretation of the Medusa character. This was a key influence and inspiration to inspire me to reimagine this ancient tale for a contemporary audience. I told the story as photo sequence that appears as a visual representation of the timeless nature of psychological, physical and sexual abuse with a modern interpretation that reimagines Medusa as the empowered guardian appearing as the protector of all women.
My main goal was to create a new visual representation of the story and character of an ancient myth for a contemporary audience. To achieve that I used Visual Core discipline skills in Makeup & Prosthetics. In her essay ''Medusa and The Female Gaze", Susan R. Bowers speaks about the male wrong
perception of female body that affects femininity and women knowledge about themselves, because the whole history of women representations in Western culture attempted to suppress the female eros power. This problem haven't stayed in the past, women all around the world are still being humiliated and abused by men and the tragedy of that is clearly seen in the online WOMAN MADE Exhibition, where a lot of women artists reclaim their traumatic stories through art. Exploring their works helped me to make a decision what characters I want in my story. To depict all these women pain I created a faceless character that represents all of them and their innocence, purity, femininity, loneliness and humiliation. The antagonist of this story is a toxic masculinity depicted as a shadow - dark, abusive, strong and dominant. Medusa, once raped and betrayed, appears in this story as a guardian for all traumatized by masculinity women - she is empowered, invulnerable, protective and all-aware. For more dramatic atmosphere I used mostly cold and dim shades of green blue and grey.
Designing my Medusa character took me a bit of time to reach its final design. I was digging deep into the semiotics, researching a lot of symbols, associations, shapes and signs, that helped me to create a meaningful character. I decided to create a costume as a prosthetics piece instead of having an actual costume, it to be a part of the character like an exoskeleton. I have made about 16 moulds to create Medusa design pieces that includes costume prosthetics, teeth and eyes. During all this process I used different prosthetics making techniques that includes latex and gelatin pouring into a mould, latex prosthetics without making a mould and making mould out of plaster and silicone. Working on that project I have learned new techniques like making two-part mould, creepy teeth and making and painting eyeballs. Furthermore, I have learned how beneficial it is to paint prosthetics pieces in advance before the photoshoot.
I am a graduating student of Design for Film specialising in Character Design and Makeup. I focus on makeup because I enjoy the process of designing characters from initial design, concept illustrations, drawings or digital design into real life creations. I was always inspired by creatures from myths, legends and folklore, and therefore most often in my personal art projects I try to give these characters a new breath. Over the past few years, I have actively worked on projects of other students, gained experience in several plays of operas and had the opportunity to use my skillset on professional film. Designing and making Prosthetics is my primary interest in this industry, so in the future I plan to find my place in a 3D workshop.
