ALL THAT GLITTERS, pt. 3

Link to photos: 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7MlCEoEDaftUFdrMHZwNjFsRk0

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ALL THAT GLITTERS

I believe it was Picasso who coined the sentence “Good artists copy, but great artists steal.” This quote is somewhat dated, since many painters at that time literally copied the paintings of past masters. Still, the concept remains the same. I’ve often said that I’ve never had an original idea, I’ve just either stolen an idea or compiled an amalgamation of concepts and ideas into something somewhat fresh and new. This gold tape project is no exception.

I spend a large part of my day on various social media platforms looking at images, dissecting the lighting, the staging, the models, etc. It’s a self-imposed fulltime job that I love. Months ago I discovered one solitary image which looked to be a poorly shot, candid, behind-the-scenes image of a woman wearing an outfit made completely of gold tape, and boom. I knew I wanted to do that.

Few people know of my history with tape. Since my childhood I’ve had an obsession with tape. The cleanness of it, its exactitude. It’s varying margins for error and recovery. Eventually I began using it as a graphic element when drawing, incorporating it into collage for both form and function. I loved the colors, the textures, the shapes I could create with it. Painters tape, masking tape, electrical tape, paper tape, gaffer’s tape, clear Scotch tape, double sided tape, the varieties seemed endless. I even learned later in college to turn layers of tape into three-dimensional objects, and that hint of an idea opened an even larger, tape-loving world to me.

So when I saw that crappy image of the model in gold tape, I was ready. I immediately looked online seconds after viewing it, ordered tow rolls of the cheapest gold tape I could find, and began messaging a few models whose bodies would look perfect covered in those reflective strips.

However, it took months to finally make it happen. I got sidetracked with work, with editing, with house guests, and finally, went on a three week trip to Europe. But despite all this, the gold tape idea lingered, gnawing at me, and finally, over a month after returning home, I finally made it happen.

My good buddy and dear friend Erika made time in her schedule to finally come over, and as we discussed life and love and money and adulthood, she stripped nude and allowed me to apply tape to her torso. It took far longer than I expected, over two hours, but she and I just hung out in my small living room, cutting, applying, removing and reapplying, sometimes with my hands having to get into crevices they never expected to be traveling. “It’s a good thing we’re such good friends…” she laughed as I slid a second long piece down into her butt crack and gently pressed down and in with the same motion.

Sometime after twelve noon she was covered as well as she was going to be, then I helped her stiffly slip on a robe she had brought, grabbed my gear, and loaded up my vehicle. Being the raver that she is, she loved the end result, wishing she could attend a music festival in the get-up, though she found the entire functionality and ability to move fluidly severely hindered by the strength of the tape.

Thirty minutes later we were out at the dunes, where I was immediately disappointed by the overcast weather. The idea was begging for bright sun and blue sky, and here again I was denied, as only happens when you truly take something for granted. Still, we soldiered on, and spent the next half hour shooting Erika from every angle possible, trying desperately to not have her vagina be shown to the few burn-out hippies in the area. When I realized the sun wasn’t going to come out, we headed back to the car, pleased with the images we had captured. 

As fate would have it, a minute or two away from the dunes, the clouds were gone and the bright sun was blazing in the heavens, allowing the crisp blue sky of ease to stretch in every direction. Not one to be deterred, I pulled over at the nearest freeway exit, stopped on the side of the road, and had her hop out for a few last photos. She climbed onto a fence to get more height, hopefully avoiding powerlines in the background of the image, and we shot for several minutes while voyeuristic drivers slowed down in hopes of making sense of what they were seeing.

I finally felt some relief, and once we were back on the road, I thanked Erika again and offered to buy her burritos for lunch, which is always a well-received treat. Back home on my sofa, as she happily ate her burritos, I helped her slowly and carefully to remove the tape from her body, watching her face grimace in pain with every removed piece. Sometimes she’d whine, other times she’d laugh, and we both shot images and videos for our Instagram accounts to entertain the public. 

She didn’t believe me when I said the negative space that had been left between the tape had become sun burnt. Even though the weather had been overcast, the UV rays were still strong that day. Only the next day, after her skin had healed and all the adhesive had finally come off did she realize I was right. And now, over a week later, the lines are still on her skin, or so she says.

But thankfully, both she and I agree that the experiment was worth it. Would I do it again? I’m not sure. I don’t like to say never, so you may just have to stay tuned to find out.

Did you like this photo set and essay? Would you like to see more experiments like this? Please leave comments and questions in the box below or in my DMs! And thank you once again for your continued support of what I do, it means the world to me!

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Here’s that link again: 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7MlCEoEDaftUFdrMHZwNjFsRk0