Why Outside?

Once again, Hello Everyone and hope your having a good (and chilly…) start to 2018. 

Welcome to our Blog where Decoupage collective will be guiding you through opinions,  articles and art which has and is inspiring our current R and D work ‘Outside’

So, we thought what better way to start than to get straight to the core of the project- in this edition of the Blog our team answered a few questions on ‘Outside’. Here we share our primary inspirations for the project and Why Outside?

What was the first thought you had that triggered Outside?
Outside came from an image, of woman, of many women together, their bodies blurring and merging so they appear as one.
It came from a lack of connection or an isolation from the physical presence of the woman, how she disconnects. A coping mechanism developed over millennia.
How can we be so out of contact with ourselves, is there a way that we can explore this in its extreme. That is not to say that we wanted to explore this connection as wholly negative, but explore it as an actual situation, a situation to be discovered.
We decided to begin specifically with women and their relationship with sex. Sex is a bonding of two bodies and in romantic love the merging of two minds, hearts, souls-whatever you want to call it. It's one of the very primal urges we have and an act that connects us deeply. So, now in our time, when we have freedom to choose, who, how and when we have sex and risk of pregnancy and disease is increasingly lower  can we and do we disconnect from the physical act of sex. Does it have to be emotional, whats its importance if any?    (image, writing, statement?)

Why did you decide to write about female sex workers? (why you? Why now? How did it affect you?)
Considering this we decided to explore this relationship with sex, the body and the mind in one of arguably its most extreme states. Sex work.
Sex work can be defined as the consenting to sexual intercourse for a fixed price paid on receipt of the physical act agreed upon.
In its presentation as work, and we’re exploring heterosexual sex work, where the workers are women, the women can take as many clients as they want in a day, they work either for a pimp who takes a cut or in a rented space, where they pay the fee for the room.
For the woman surely this work is purely physical, but how can you disconnect from an act that so often involves the emotional. How do the women protect themselves from the emotional instability of a number of different partners a day and the physical pain as a result. Not to mention the treatment they receive from the clients.
What can this extreme relationship with sex tell us about disconnection, emotional and physical isolation and what it is to be a woman in our society.
We want to try to articulate the complexity of sex workers condition and the perception of such condition by themselves

What images interested you artistically? (any clear images from the beginning of your thought process?)
The discrepancy between the fantasy society tends to have (what we can find in books, films, etc) and the reality of it.
Découpage works around the psychology of characters and the translation of conscious and subconscious. How can we illustrate the complexity of human brain in a physically manner? How can we express the loss of someone’s own body through breaking it out within different embodiments.
We are also interested in music so our thinking started with a strong presence of everyday sounds and how those could stimulate images.
For now before we can start the practical process, we are fascinated by details.
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Can you sight any artists who have inspired you and the way you’ll work on this project?
We are inspired by the poetic imagery that goes into the work of artists like Philippe Genty and James Thierrée. Within our  work we like to create images with power, that stand on there own as artistic works. These theatre makers use the visual to capture an emotion, a feeling a memory, to elaborate on the text and sound. That is something that really inspires us, the total act. Bringing something alive with every sense that you can.

What is the first image in your head when you think of outside?
For now, before we can start with the practical research we are captivated by details, fragments, angles and ways of framing: a leg, a foot, a multitude of hands, perfume and alcohol, laughs and tears. Women. The sounds and life that come out of it. We are not willing to make a political show, even if the subject also belongs to today’s political sphere, but we just want to present a feeling, an atmosphere that is honest, visceral and beautiful in its honesty.

What are your hopes for the project?
We hope to present the image built by society and sex workers themselves that enables myths and wrong beliefs about prostitution. We want to illustrate the inner and real self, denied by sex workers as well as the position in between these two ends of the spectrum: what is the reality endured by sex workers and how they deal with it