Bibliography

Dunn, Megan. “Things I learned at Art School: Yvonne Todd” https://thespinoff.co.nz/art/04-09-2019/things-i-learned-at-art-school-yvonne-todd/. Accessed Date: 30.04.21


Doye, Charlotte. “Humour and Discomfort: Talking to Yvonne Todd.” https://pantograph-punch.com/posts/yvonne-todd. Accessed Date: 20.04.21


Lopesi, Lana. “The inner world of Natasha Matila-Smith.” https://www.metromag.co.nz/arts/the-inner-world-of-artist-natasha-matila-smith Metro Magazine. Date Accessed: 05.05.21


Mancini, Huni. “The Dark Intimacies of Online Romance in Natasha Matila-Smith’s

Artwork” https://pantograph-punch.com/posts/touching-the-veil Date Accessed: 03.05.21


Nielson, J.N. “From Neurotic Misery to Ordinary Human Unhappiness.” https://geopolicraticus.wordpress.com/2009/08/06/neurotic-misery-ordinary-human-unhappiness/  Date Accessed: 06.06.21

Rogers, Backman Anna. Ulfsdotter, Boel. “Hybrid Practices.” Essay. In Female Agency and Documentary Strategies: Subjectivities, Identity and Activism. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019.

Shannon, Marie., Davidson, Alex. “Summer Reading Series #1: The Aachen Faxes - a conversation between Marie Shannon and Alex Davidson” https://www.circuit.org.nz/blog/summer-reading-series-1-the-aachen-faxes-a-conversation-between-marie-shannon-and-alex-davidson. Circuit. Date Acessed 05.05.21


Spicer, Emily. “Juno Calypso: ‘Male critics don’t think women are funny, they don’t think women are capable of irony. They just think that women are silly and self-destructive’” Studio International.https://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/juno-calypso-interview 08.11.17. Date Accessed: November 2021


The Arts Foundation. “An Interview with Yvonne Todd.” https://www.thearts.co.nz/articles/an-interview-with-yvonne-todd Date Accessed: 01.05.21

Yelich-O'Connor, E., & Antonoff, J. (2021). Lorde “Mood Ring” Official Lyrics & Meaning | Verified. Youtube. Retrieved 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7Jg4-e-La8&t=115s.

Zappavigna, Michele, and Sumin Zhao. "Selfies and Recontextualization: Still Life Self-imaging in Social Media." In Photography and Its Publics, 207–228. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020. Accessed September, 2021.

Reference List

Throughout the process of making Everyday Unhappiness I and Everyday Unhappiness: Interlude I had many points of reference that I went back to often to recentre my thinking and ideas. They were a very important part of my making process. The music included in this list, The Fear, Mood Ring and PRIMADONNA are a little more unexpected to be included, but these pieces are very dear to me, and are so very important to understanding Everyday Unhappiness: Interlude. The works I explored earlier in the year, What to do with a million years, Natasha Matila-Smith’s work,  and Self Portraits played a large part in the beginnings of Everyday Unhappiness I, and have allowed me to explore and consider ideas around vulnerability and control that have been integral to my understanding of making work as a young woman. Marie Shannon’s work provided a wonderful reference of maintaining poise while using text, and the effect of a well executed soundtrack. Emma Chamberlain's work has remained a constant as a way for me to tap into vlog culture, and allows me to share some of the content that I consume, and therefore influences my making. Double Indemnity has remained close to my work for as long as I have been seriously making art. It’s influences have really come to fruition in this work. Everyday Unhappiness: Interlude would not be what it is without this collection of references.

Allen, Lily. “The Fear”. 2009. Date Accessed: June 2021

This  piece has been in my life since I was a child. As I grew up I started to interrogate the slightly coarse manner she talks about herself. For example, the line “everything’s cool as long as I’m getting thinner” was always slightly repulsive, as it feels so shallow and unhealthy. However, I was still drawn to it. I would sing it in the car and dance along. It wasn’t until I would dance and sing along that I realised the irony and ridiculousness of it. This made me love it even more. It wasn’t until I saw Lorde talk about the writing process for ‘Mood Ring’ and its connection to ‘The Fear’ that it really sunk in how deeply connected I am to this manner of writing. This full circle moment occurred and finally grounded me in what I knew all along about my art, and its relationship to performance and irony. 

Calypso, Juno. “What to do with a Million Years.” 2018. Date Accessed: March 2021

Juno Calypso talks openly about her performance as the character ‘Joyce’. What to do with a million years highlights a lot of ideas for me related to women and beauty rituals. Something I personally take quite seriously, and is very interlinked with the performative nature of my practice. The interesting thing about this work of Calypso’s in particular is the elements of surveillance. Particularly, Calypso herself surveilling a character that she created. The elements of control within the dynamics of the work were something I learnt a lot from and was able to apply to my making. 

Chamberlain, Emma. “Rotten”. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F14Flnq3zCY August 2021. Date Accessed: August 2021

Vlog culture is a very key element to my media consumption, particularly as a young person. Emma Chamberlain is one of few ‘vloggers’ who’s content I still keep up with, and I believed it was important to be referencing the connections to this world and the work I create. Emma Chamberlain has been taking a different stance within her content recently which interestingly has taken place simultaneously to the changes that took place for me in the transition from Everyday Unhappiness I to the Interlude. This video of hers in particular was quite the pivot from her previous ways of working. I was watching a lot of her content alongside the makings of my work to analyse the state of vlogging and what the ideas vlogging presents around documentation can do for me and my making. 

Diamandis, Marina. “PRIMADONNA”. 2021. Date Accessed: May 2021.

Similarly to ‘The Fear’, PRIMADONNA has been in my life since early adolescence, and has continued to have a place in my library since. PRIMADONNA particularly references the idea of a very shamelessly spoiled young lady. I had been particularly conflicted by my adoration for this song, as I knew I did not like the way this character was portrayed. The song stayed in my rotation and I have always loved listening to it. It wasn’t until the beginning of this year when I started to explore the reclamation of the term ‘bimbo’ that I fully connected with it and it’s ability to shape my work. It also was another fantastic example of the type of writing that Lily Allen and Lorde achieve in ‘The Fear’ and ‘Mood Ring’. I did not realise how hugely misunderstood PRIMADONNA was, and how many just completely missed the irony. Including myself. 

Matila- Smith, Natasha. “I think you like me but I’ve been wrong about these things before.”  February 2021. Date Accessed: 16.05.21

‘I think you like me but I’ve been wrong about these things before’ was essentially life changing for me. I had never experienced an exhibit that explored vulnerability in such a poised manner. It also showcased the relationship between filmmaking and the potential for sculpture/installation focused practices. It was an extremely important work for me to have seen, especially for the process of creating Everyday Unhappiness I. I revisited it often online after the exhibit had closed to remind myself of the possibilities of installation practices. 

Matila-Smith, Natasha. “If I Die, Please Delete My Soundcloud” 2019. Date Accessed: 2021

‘If I Die, Please Delete My Soundcloud’ explored ideas around internal monologue that were crucial in my making process of Everyday Unhappiness I. Previously I was quite interested in Marie Shannon’s work which utilised text, so looking at ‘If I Die, Please Delete My Soundcloud’ really solidified my own interest with the use of text in my own work. The intimacy of the film was also something I was interested in, and my own ability to enhance this feeling within my work. 

Nagashima, Yurie. “Self Portraits” Dashwood Books. 2020. Date Accessed: March 2021

Yurie Nagashima introduces some interesting ideas in this book around self portraiture, and what it means to photograph yourself. The role of photographer, viewer and subject can be largely altered in dynamic when one person is controlling 2/3 aspects of this dynamic. There is something incredibly empowering in self imaging and I found this really key when I was creating the foundations of my work this year. Forming my ideas around self portraiture and the empowerment in the ability to photograph oneself is important to my current work that is very focused on broadcasting myself. 

Shannon, Marie. “Aachen Faxes”. 2012. Date Accessed: June 2021

Shannon’s use of text was a really fantastic reference point for my initial experiments when introducing text. Elements of this work in particular that helped me shape my own use of titles was, pacing, passing of time and soundtrack. All of these elements were so delicately thought out in the Aachen Faxes, and it was fantastic to have an example that was so well executed to look at when I was feeling confused about the elements of text that I hadn’t used before. 

Wilder, Billy. “Double Indemnity”. 1944. Date Accessed: 2021.

I studied film noir in my last year of high school. It was in the very early emergence of my journey as a feminist, and I was still learning a lot about where I fit into the movement. Particularly we were looking at Double Indemnity for its representation of the madonna/whore complex. It was during the analysis essay that I did on this film that I realised how deeply engrained misogyny is in the media. It was a very huge moment for me and my ideas around activism. Since then, I have always viewed my use of noir conventions as an act of reclamation. 


Yelich O’connor, Ella. Antonoff, Jack.  “Mood Ring”. August 2021. Date Accessed: August 2021. 

‘Mood Ring’ was the connecting element that brought my ideas around performance and character together. As I mentioned, I had an affinity for songwriters who used this technique in the past, but had never quite been able to articulate the meaning and context that makes these pieces so important. However, ‘Mood Ring’ allowed me to fully grasp these ideas. Lorde describes the character in the song as “A vapid, twentysomething white woman”, which she goes on to acknowledge that this character is not far from herself. But this is what I find so powerful about it, it allows a sense of introspection and reflection that is very rare and hard to articulate. It really solidified my experience with this work and articulated these ideas for me. When I fully unpacked these ideas is when I finally understood what I was doing. 

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