Ellen Daisy
Women of 2020
Honestly, this project is completely different to how I originally wanted it. When I was first given this assignment I was excited to make it mine, to make something that I was really passionate about, to share it with people. I’m still really passionate and actually quite proud of the blog I’ve created, but I think in my head it’s not 100% what I wanted as an outcome, but oh well, I’m making it work and I think it’s going well.
I planned on curating an exhibition exploring body positivity and fat activism, like I am now, but with more visuals and less words, ironic seeing as I’m now writing about it. If the exhibition was still going ahead, I had an idea to use projected videos of the girls on a wall, rather than written pieces, seeing as the body positivity movement is often about visuals. But that’s an idea I can save for later and explore with a little freer rein after I’ve graduated. I have quite a lot of ideas for this project that have been put on hold thanks to Covid-19, but I’d really love to carry them on one day. The black and white photos of myself on this blog are how I wanted the rest of the exhibition photos to look, and now obviously the exhibition is cancelled, but it’s nice to know I have some plans for after all this madness ends, some form of excitement to come.
Covid-19 put things on hold
There are so many things I’ve learnt from the start to end of this project, the biggest being making the best of a bad situation. I think a lot of students will have found the same thing. For the class of 2020 our last year of university has pretty much been the opposite to what we thought it would be, from the university strikes to Covid-19 shutting the whole thing down.
Even though my initial ideas can't happen at the moment, it doesn't mean they can't happen at some point. I think I've made this project into something that's worked for now and it's achieved the exact same messages I wanted to with the exhibition.
I think this blog is as much for myself as it is for other people. It's quite nice to have a platform (other than my own Instagram) where I can explore new confidence. Sharing the black and white photos of me, for example: even a year ago I wouldn't have had the confidence or self worth to share those photos. But now I find it really exciting that they're on here. It's empowering that I don't mind them being on here too. I like the fact my rolls are on show, that my body is just being seen in its comfiest way.
My plan at the moment is to carry this blog on after university. I'd really like to experiment with different types of photography I think. I'd love to take the original black and white photos I was going to use for the exhibition. I think that would be beautiful.
I'm excited to see what I make of this blog after university. I've already made plans with one of the girls on here to possibly collaborate on the progression of this blog. We've come up with some really interesting art projects and future topics we'd like to explore. I'm excited just to be able to share this blog with people, all the hard work and passion, just to share my ambitions with other like-minded people around me. It's nice to know that all the ideas I came up with for the exhibition I can still use- they're still mine. Everyone should be able to explore their own confidence, identity and sexuality within their own time and boundaries.
Being a final year university student has been a weird experience recently, first with the strikes and now the disruption of Covid-19. I'm so grateful that my friends and family are safe, but I really would've loved to finish my final year like a normal student. But I know that even though it hasn't happened how we'd all liked it to, my friends and I will of course get a final goodbye to the last three years of our lives.
I hope everyone stays safe and happy.
Good luck students of 2020.
#womenof2020