Skin Touch

Skin Touch

Skin Touch

My project was developed for my final major university project and is about skin hunger and touch deprivation, exploring the space between touch and skin. This project really pushed me to make weird and unusual, perhaps uncomfortable pieces of works. I had this idea in the back of my mind for some time during the first lockdown, with no real plans or thoughts regarding making and execution. I believe I was subconsciously drawn to the element of touch and skin by experiencing skin hunger (before actually learning and understanding what this phenomenon was) and allowed myself space to expand my ideas during the projects’ development.
The project concept started by focusing on skin and ‘imperfections’. Throughout the process my thoughts shifted, and I began exploring skin and touch rather than imperfections. I remember simply linking arms with a friend on a walk for the first time in about a year. That simple action, that soft touch filled us both with happiness, joy and surprise. The effect was so impactful for both of us which made me realise it was not only I who was missing touch. I wanted to explore touch deprivation and skin hunger, a common experience for many people during the Coronavirus pandemic. This makes my project concept a very current and relatable subject to many people because of the many restrictions and safety concerns. The project concept and experimentation addresses skin on skin touch, lack of touch during the pandemic and feelings and emotions people feel regarding touch/lack of.
To kick off this project, I firstly had to research and learn about skin itself. I learnt that skin is made up of seven important layers. Here they are with a short summary of each:
1. Stratum corneum - Made of keratin and acts as the skins first defence.
2. Stratum lucidum - Thin and clear layer.
3. Stratum granulosum - Keeps the skin cells glued together.
4. Stratum spinosum - Dendritic cells (known as the prickle cell layer), also a defence layer.
5. Stratum basale - Gives skin it’s pigment from melanin and vitamin D.
6. Dermis - This layer includes connective tissue (collagen), sweat and oil glands, nerves that sense
pain, touch, pressure and temperature as well as gives skin its flexibility.
7. Hypodermis - Deepest layer of skin that contains fat, insulating body.

For primary research I looked at my own skin, focusing on textures and markings and scars. I then focused on the tactile element, acknowledging how the skin feels. Running my finger across a scar felt soft and repaired, the folds in my belly warm and squishy. As well as researching skin, it was important for me to research the epidemic of touch deprivation, or ‘skin hunger’. I had never heard of this neurological phenomenon, until the coronavirus pandemic. Skin hunger is the biological need for human touch. I knew this subject was personal to me, but I hadn’t quite figured out why until this research.
After researching more on skin hunger, I began to understand the importance of human touch, thinking of ways to show this in my work. Human touch has many benefits. It helps calm the nervous system, boost the immune system, activate oxytocin that is critical for bonding (known as the “love hormone”), reduce the production of cortisol (stress hormone), lower blood pressure and heart rate. As humans, we crave connection and interaction, and touching is one of our instincts. One article I read interestingly noted that people who are more likely to feel lonely are also likely to say they are deprived of touch, and those loneliest are often young adults. The second loneliest are the elderly, missing tactile interaction.
After many experiments using materials such as glue and clingfilm, I chose to work with hot candle wax. Originally it was the first material I could think of relating to heat, linking to the Dermis and Hypodermis, however I soon discovered it had interestingly similar qualities to human skin. It is somewhat flexible like skin, and malleable. When cooled it is also strong. It is of an oily nature, linking to the oils human have in their skin. It warms up and cools like the human body (obviously different temperatures!) and is used to seal letters, the same way the Dermis layer of skin is full of connective tissue keeping the Epidermis attached. I started by pouring the wax onto paper, and found that once hardened, small fragments came off, reminding me of archaeological-like objects. I then started experimenting with the touch of my hand and sought to replace the human touch of another with the candle wax. I also came across another surprising link by chance during this process, learning that Christianity interprets the wax of a candle as the body of Christ. The results I found incredibly interesting, capturing details and forms, replacing the space between touch.
As my subject carried so much emotion and sensitivity, I decided on creating a ‘performance’ video against a white background, displaying the relationship between skin and human touch substituted by wax. I wanted to use the wax as a substitution of another person, showing their warmth and touch against my body. As result of pouring, touching and squeezing the melted wax on my body I created the wax artefacts capturing the space between touch and physically displaying what is left behind. The fallen wax fell from my body during the video shoot, landed and went cold before hardening. This links to the same way touch has gone cold over the last 18months of the pandemic. I filmed the process and created a video contextualising the artefacts and providing the viewer with an emotional understanding of the project concept and how these artefacts came to be created.

The photographs of my wax artefacts show the delicacy of skin and what the whole project has been about. These wax pieces literally symbolise skin hunger as a physical sculpture.

This project would strongly invite public engagement. The wax artefact photographs would work in a gallery beside the physical sculptures, allowing viewers the space and chance to study them. The video would be without music in the exhibition space as it could interfere with other works (if using a shared exhibition space). I could provide headphones but wouldn’t want viewers touching any aspect of the work or gallery space due to Covid-19 as well as the theme of the project being about deprivation of touch.

The size of each wax artefact varies but they range between 3cm x 3cm and 7cm width. I only used one material which is candle wax.

Before deciding on using the candle wax I experimented and tested a large quantity of relevant materials to the seven layers of skin and touch.. These included body painting Inspired by Yves Klein where I painted and printed with my body. I used the colour purple because when researching the Stratum spinosum layer of skin, all the images were purple. I printed with my body, searching for the relationship between touch, myself and the texture created from my skin against the paper. I also observed the way the paint hardened and broke on my skin, creating patterns and textures. I tried ‘touch’ in the form of a kiss through clingfilm and facemasks, the idea stemming from the restrictions caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. This experiment resulted in the texture and print of my lips on clingfilm and facemasks, showing how a kiss looks and feels and the role the mask plays in being the blocker of touch. I also tried to create a skin rubbing but felt they weren’t very exciting. Using playdough, I explored the space between touch. I asked myself where do people touch; a tap on the shoulder perhaps and how this looks. Pretending it was someone else I pressed the playdough onto my arm, getting an imprint from both sides of what this space looked like.
I also experimented with PVA glue, linking to the Stratum Granulosum layer of skin which keeps it all glued together. I put all the glue on my hands and it looked like I was peeling a layer of skin off my hand as I removed the dried glue. I enjoyed this process and the results captured every dent and skin fold on my hand in great detail. The difficulty was with peeling the layer of glue off in one piece, as it was so thin it kept breaking. After all these experiments I looked at the skin’s element of heat and warmth and decided to use candle wax, for the reasons outlined in paragraph 6 in the above response (I have copied it below too).

After many experiments using materials such as glue and clingfilm, I chose to work with hot candle wax. Originally it was the first material I could think of relating to heat, linking to the Dermis and Hypodermis, however I soon discovered it had interestingly similar qualities to human skin. It is somewhat flexible like skin, and malleable. When cooled it is also strong. It is of an oily nature, linking to the oils human have in their skin. It warms up and cools like the human body (obviously different temperatures!) and is used to seal letters, the same way the Dermis layer of skin is full of connective tissue keeping the Epidermis attached. I started by pouring the wax onto paper, and found that once hardened, small fragments came off, reminding me of archaeological-like objects. I then started experimenting with the touch of my hand and sought to replace the human touch of another with the candle wax. I also came across another surprising link by chance during this process, learning that Christianity interprets the wax of a candle as the body of Christ. The results I found incredibly interesting, capturing details and forms, replacing the space between touch.

https://www.zuzannazajac.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gUxkE6p4EI&ab_channel=ZuzZ

https://www.instagram.com/artbyzuuz/