Self-Directed Project: '1970s Ankou' & 'Beelzebub'

Originally considering the idea for a large-scale performance piece, I began preliminary work into photographic portraits of mythical figures of my choice to follow up on my college FMP piece 21st Century Baphomet. I considered the idea of working on two types of images for this project; the first one will feature a complete costume which will feature photos taken on location. The second (set) will focus on a partially developed costume piece and will be limited to studio space.

For my first costume piece, I decided to create photographic portraits for a costume I developed towards the end of October called 1970s Ankou.

Because of the general aesthetic of Ankou, I chose to take the photos in the sculpture yard of the university campus, providing an industrial environment that felt appropriate. Although I took numerous photos for this piece, I only selected three for the final presentation.

1970s Ankou (2011)

The second piece involved initial construction of a new costume project, this one was to be based on the demon Beelzebub. I decided to focus on the popularised image of this figure as a literal 'Lord of the Flies', as shown from its illustration from the book Dictionnaire Infernal as well as various examples taken from popular culture, most commonly from video games.

Original illustration of Beelzebub in Collin de Plancy's Dictionnaire Infernal (1863).

Engraved by M. Jarrault.

Beelzebub depicted in game series, Shin Megami Tensei.

Illustrated by Kazuma Kaneko.

Beelzebub depicted in Final Fantasy II.

Illuustrated by Yoshitaka Amano.

Beelzebub depicted in arcade game, Ghouls n Ghosts.

Illustrated by Tokuro Fujiwara, Shinichi Yoshimoto and Hisashi Yamamoto.

Since I didn't intend on producing for a complete costume piece, I decided to only focus on creating a prototype of the costume for the upper part of the body (anywhere above the waist).

I constructed a wire structure for the torso, using wire wrapped around itself as the 'ribs' and a wire mesh as the 'skin' in between. I created segmented limbs from mod-roc and the hands were created from cardboard covered in latex. The materials used for the hands would be further incorporated into the later development of this costume.

Beelzebub (2011)

I hadn't developed a complete idea on what the head could appear as but my designs and the final presentation in the studio involved a novelty mask I found some time before I initiated on the project. The cling-film scattered around the main sculpture was actually from when I cast my own arms for the mod-roc segments. I wished to develop on the form of the wings for when I set out to complete the project in the future.

This project was the start of me further exploring the idea of costume as part of my artistic practice and the relevance in how I attempt to identify through these various figures.