Artist’s Book “Connections”

Following on from Linescape and considering some of the same themes, “Connections” is an artists book with a sense of discovery and playfulness. Each disc or ‘page’ is 15cm across making this book very large and weighty. This brings an earthy, grounding element to the work, which compliments the subtle links to landscapes and the natural environment.

Artist Book ‘Connections’ – 2017

An Island in a City Sea

Pulled out of personal experience of Environment, “An Island in a City Sea” combines natural and synthetic materials that form a changing liminal space dictated by light and the combination of poetry along side sculpture. Man and nature, two sides of the same coin and yet so looked upon as enemies, a contrast, if you will, of interests.

An island in a city sea,

No mountain but to us could be,

The mound of rock, of earth, of stone,

A place we seem to be alone.

Yet all around the light of day,

At night seeps in and comes to stay.

‘An island in a city sea’ – 2017

City Worm

Drawing from the space between wilderness and city, these sculptures explore light as a parasite in a natural environment. The piece of gorse bush wood was stripped and carved into, creating holes which the glow sticks worm their way through. This is a work in progress.

Untitled – 2017

Untitled Light Stick – 2017

Untitled Light Stick – 2017

Unnatural Growth

With sustainability in mind, as that was the title, I revisited balance within nature. Working with recycled materials gathered from scrap bins in the university workshops I started this project recreating some of the shapes and ideas I created before. I explored different materials and shapes formed solely through balance. The final culmination of this was “Unnatural Growth” a balanced sculpture showing the progression or digression from plank of wood to natural tree.

It’s the thought that counts

Portraiture isn’t my specialty so this was a challenge. The initial idea I’d had was a full head with a ‘functioning’ mind. I wanted to show the process of thinking; the information going in, around and coming out. This piece reflects my dyslexia, showing my slower processing and how what I’m thinking often comes out differently. The ‘information’ or marbles in this case are dropped into the ‘mind’ (the dish), here they circle until they ‘form’ and drop out the mouth. At the point where they ‘form’ and drop, the ‘thought’ or marble changes. Inside the piece is a mechanism that stops one marble until another hits it, swapping positions. This means, if there is already a white marble in it and you put a blue marble in, the white one would come out.

Untitled – 2017

‘It’s the thought that counts’ – 2017

A Performance by the Audience

As I researched the intriguing world of performance and live art I found it involves a lot of theory, psychology and philosophy. It gets pretty weird but that is the point a lot of the time. In this case I wanted to address what is socially acceptable to do in a gallery space by asking the audience to perform. The text I placed on the wall was as follows:

I know you’re probably wondering ‘Why am I reading this?’ but this is why… You’ve probably had a long day and are tired of walking around this gallery aimlessly looking at things. So why not lie down and relax. Take some deep breaths and just sink into the floor… If you’re still reading this then you probably don’t think the floor is very clean, because I’d already be on the floor if I were you. When are you going to have an excuse for lying on the floor? It’ll be good for you to stop, for a minute or two. I know you’re thinking about it… Come on, become the art and do it for me or at least do it for the sake of doing it. Just lie down. Don’t think about it and relax!

When presented to my peers they proceeded to all lie down. The result was slightly unexpected. In an exhibition I would leave pillows and not bother with the tape as this seems to be something that groups of people might be more like to do.