In the Periphery of Art
A fusion of body painting, acroyoga, photography ... and pandemic!
About:
Read the full article (in Swedish and English translation) and see the rest of the pictures here!
1. Body painting
Since beginning of time, man has decorated the body. We see it in permanent as well as temporary forms of decorations such as piercings, tattoos and beaded hairstyles as well as paintings on the face and body in clay, ash and natural pigments.
Body painting is a decoration of the body where you paint or through other techniques let the body act as a canvas. It can be for different purposes, such as telling a story, inspiring imagination and can also be used for advertising and marketing purposes. A body painting can also be created as a tribute. To show a pregnant belly or to strengthen a symbiosis between two bodies.
This is an art form that cannot be performed with social distance. But in small groups, the close collaboration has been able to continue. Carolina Claesson and Linda Gartman are two body painters in Gothenburg who have long worked closely together with both commercial assignments and free artistic projects.
Before the photoshoot the team gathered together and everyone shared their ideas about possible acrobatic expressions, vague vision of the sketch of the paint and photography techniques such as angles and lights. It gave an edge to the project where we could surf the creative wave all the way. Being able to express our creativity in this project was so fun and rewarding!
2. Acroyoga
Acroyoga is a practice where presence and trust are the cornerstones. It is incredibly playful and at the same time beneficial to let go of everything else to be in symbiosis with another human being. Communication takes place without words. Two bodies become one!
As an acro-duo, you create both movement and form together. The closeness and touch in the training gives a feeling of being taken care of and being seen on a deeper level. To be held. In this project, both form and expression were created in the moment, all three art forms were woven together in a synchronized creative process that all reinforced each other.
Joy and creativity were the key words in the project, where the vision of all participating artists was to highlight and emphasize the importance of trust and closeness, Togetherness!
3. Photographing
The light consisted of two flashes, one as the key light and another as the fill light, both equipped with soft boxes.
To make the models pop up I went for a dark background but because of tight space that was challenging to achieve. I also wanted to take the shot with the narrowest angle (bigger focal length) possible, something that is common in portrait, but due to tight space I had to play around to find the right angel that the models, light and background all work well together.
One of the challenges was to combine body painting and acrobatics, former requires hours of work and the latter happens in a matter of seconds. And the photo has to be taken in the exact right moment.
4. Editing
The editing process was the time consuming part. Carolina and Linda had many great ideas and their skills in photoshop combined with great team working helped achieve satisfying results.
Participants in Instagram
Body painting artists:
Linda Garman Carolina Claesson
Acro-duo:
photo and edit:
