I find the city at night to have an eerie kind of peacefulness. The lights and colours seem decadent, illuminating deserted shops and buildings. I took these on new years eve and managed to catch a couple of fireworks from the top of the crags in Edinburgh.
When given the challenge of making a booklet out of one piece of paper, I thought a lot about the folds that were needed. I also didn’t want to make all the pages the same, so I spent a day just folding and refolding paper to find a template that would work. However, the contence is pretty important and I wanted it to reflect some of my previous work. At the moment I’ve been thinking a lot about landscapes and travel between city and wilderness. The line came from Environment which I worked on last year, where I played with shadows and wire to create an animated image. Here I took the line and made it 3D through the manipulation of material. The title ‘Linescape’ incorporates the two elements that make this simple booklet work.
I find it funny how our paths often lead us back to places we visited in our childhood. For me Iona is that place, which every time I visit I get that feeling of freedom and careless happiness associated with childhood memories. But it always seems unreal or false in someway because it is in my past. This summer I visited Iona with my parents who met, married and lived on the island before I came along. It felt like such a special moment to be back on the island and yet when I think of all the people who visit for a few hours everyday, it reminds me that each of them probably have somewhere that is equally special. Somewhere that enchants, inspires and drives them to return. The rough and winding paths created in these images caught my eye whether made of stone, sand or water they represented a path forwards.
Four months on the beautiful Isle of Mull, working essentially on my own, has been an amazing experience. It tested how comfortable I was with myself and has been surprisingly relaxing. As an artist it gave me lots to think about and plenty to develop. Along with song writing, sculpting, carving, writing and sketching I also took a fair amount of photographs. Photography has become a tool for every type of artist, from fashion designers to painters and has been used in so many ways. For me it is both development and product of my work. Turning the camera on the artist, I have used it as a way of accepting the me I see in everyday. I have never really been one for taking selfies, maybe because I was never that comfortable with how I looked, but the less I have thought about looks the better I have felt and the healthier I’ve been. Too many young people are caught up with looks and don’t see the natural beauty of every body and every person including themselves. So, this is how I am on my own, this is me, just me.
As a part of our trip to Venice we went to visit Mantua, Padua and Verona. In Padua there is this fascinating little chapel called the Scrovegni Chapel which contains works by the artist Giotto. I highly recommend going to see this even if you’re not a fan of churches, because pictures don’t do it justice. The colour in the room is so bright considering it’s over 700 years old. Lapis and Gold make a beautiful contrast. I could go into all the history but that’s not what astonished me. I like to look at the details.
Mantua was the next stop and the Ducal Palace, Mantua and the “bridal chapel” Camera degli Sposi by Andrea Mantegna. There was some history behind this room and it defiantly felt quite odd, because most of the rest of the palace had no decoration left, but this room was preserved. The detail is beautiful even though some parts have fallen away. In the top corner of one of the frescos was what seemed to be a shadow of something that was added later on, in a paint that didn’t last as long as the original. There is something so beautiful about decay.
Finally we visited Verona, most commonly known as the setting for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The two main places we went were Verona’s Arena and “Juliet’s Balcony”. The Arena was particularly pretty as we got there at sunset. It was built by the romans in the first century and is still used for concerts. Originally I’d thought that “Juliet’s Balcony” would be really bland and boring but it was amazing. The sheer amount of graffiti blew me away. Millions of signatures and notes stuck to the walls in everyday imaginable. Well worth the visit.
Gwyneth Machin 