The Lungs.

The lungs are a symbol within Snow White that I want to explore. I was very inspired by the album cover of Florence and the Machine. She is displaying her lungs outside of the body, and they are protected by a dainty outer skeleton.

This inspired me to turn the outer skeleton into a bodice and then fit some wire lungs inside.

Obviously the lungs are used to breathe and in the story of Snow White, her body is restricted and she collapsed. This is why the bodice fits in well with the symbolism - bodices are very tight on the body, sculpting you, making it hard to breathe.

I went to the Bath Fashion Museum to have a look at the corsets there. I took some photos of some of the corsets, and you can see how much pain it must cause wearing them.






As i'm looking at using a bodice for the skeleton, I wont be adding fabric over it, I plan to just keep it simple.

I'm hoping that by interpreting the lungs in this way will make it more artistic and original, i'm hoping I can apply my model of the bodice/lugs into a photoshop piece.

My Wire Bodice

This is the bodice skeleton which I made out of wire. As it was only an experiment I didn't take too long to make it. I made it by taking a piece of aluminium wire and then measuring it around myself so that the structure is in proportion, life size and made from a primary source. It is a little bit wonky in places where the wire wouldn't straighten. However, it has turned out pretty well. I would like to incorporate this into some photoshop work or hand illustrate over the top in order to take it further. If I was to do this for a final piece, it would be nice to add some delicate lace, so that the structure is still see through, but more decorative and finished off. It would also be good to think of something to hang off the bottom, like a skirt.

These are the lungs which I also made out of aluminium wire. I started making them by just forming a basic structure. Once I had that, I wanted to add more detail so there was a contrast between the lungs and the bodice.

So to add detail, I used a very very thin silver plated wire, and wrapped it around, also adding beads onto it. I tried to make it so there were lots of loops and layers of the fine wire to make it interesting and to add texture to the surface of them, because obviously lungs aren't smooth.

I wanted to also try and wrap ribbon all around and in between too, however it took away the delicate look I achieved, as lungs are very delicate.

Wire Qualities:

Aluminium: fairly manipulable, Strong

Silver Plated: very fine, soft, good for decoration.

Modelling of my lungs. I love how these came out, I think they are so beautiful and fragile, a great representation of the meanings behind the real things.

Photoshop Edit Experiment

Acrylic Paint and Pencil

Here is a first piece where I was inspired by the print of the scarf on Alexander McQueen. I incorporated skulls into the pretty flowers, I tried to keep it subtle. I will use these contrasts again...

Pen and Sewing Machine (low tension)

Inspired again by McQueen, a first attempt of juxtaposing the animal features on to a human. I will use these ideas again, this was just a preliminary experiment.

I decided to do another set of basic drawings, I thought this would give me a good base for future material.

Here I was inspired to turn my initial illustration into a new form. As lungs are the organ to breathe, I used the association with roots being what trees need to 'breathe'. I was really inspired by Claire Skully for this piece. This is a typical way in which she uses tone.

My lungs juxtaposed into a piece of nature.