Ashton Blyth
Conformity Checklist
Inspired by Dustin Yellin and his use of paper to create an illusion of the human form, I decided I wanted to create my own human sculpture out of paper. To do this, I first decided I wanted the paper to mean something.
When thinking about paper in relation to identity, I think about things such as passport forms with check boxes, and from that forms in general where you are forced to tick a box about yourself, that you may not feel is appropriate but it’s the one that applies the most to you out of all the options.
I compiled a list of check-boxes for the most prominent things I felt contributed to your identity: gender, sexuality and religion are the three labels that we get to choose, society may impact us but intimately these decisions are ours. This compilation was titled the 'Conformity Checklist' and consisted of all genders, sexualities and the top twenty practiced religions globally, with all lists including ‘Other’ and ‘Prefer not to say’. For each category I researched all possible options and tried to include them where possible.
I’m currently thinking I could ask the viewers to complete one of these forms to be able to view this sculpture, using pen’s provided and putting them in a locked box. This way they’ll be thinking about how they’ve just had to conform themselves to tick boxes before they view the sculpture created by these forms.