Artist Statement

 My current practice is based on shape and process, using mainly textiles and print media. Femininity and the female form is the source of inspiration for the numerous shapes and mark making techniques that are present in current works.

Through looking at abstract expressionism, techniques that are considered ‘manly’ dominate the movement, such examples are large expressive motions with the hands and/or body and using phallic shaped objects such as the paintbrush. My work tries to overcome these actions by creating abstract marks using delicate ‘feminine’ movements and to avoid using phallic objects and instead using print techniques and textile arrangements.

My work pushes a number of different processes that could be likened to the monotonous tasks stereotypically carried out by a women, for example washing dishes or vacuuming. By creating works through this way, it feels like the artist is empathizing and better understanding the hardship many women had to go through at the beginning of the last century. The aesthetics of the work, however, can be likened to current issues associated with the modern female form. The media and consumerist society we live in today warps the way females are viewed, who are often portrayed as submissive and present only for the male gaze.  My work aims to combine these stereotypical views on feminism, past and present, and hopes to raise these issues in the viewer’s mind through the strong, bold lines of my prints, and the distorted, yet beautiful visual landscapes of my textile pieces.

Certain pieces of my work bear a strong resemblance to aerial images of geographical landscapes. In turn this can be read using feminine qualities of a map, such as topography and contour lines, to express the natural female form. My prints are printed onto newsprint again to reinforce the idea of current media views and expectations depicted in newspapers and magazines, more often than not aimed at the female population, created by consumerist companies taking advantage of some women’s insecurities about body image in order to sell their products.  

Textile landscapes from prints

These pieces were created using the prints shown in the previous post. They were scanned in onto a computer and then manipulated further using editing software.

Textile Print pieces

Miss-Representation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=S5pM1fW6hNs#!

Projections

 For the past few years of using this blog I have only really posted images, as I like the viewer to take in their own interpretations of my work, however for the purposes of university I am going to start explaining parts of my practice. These images are based on projections created using acetate print outs of earlier images of textile pieces. These were projected onto card and then cut out into the shapes they created, which will then be hung, and possibly entwined using threads and ribbon.

Here is a  short rational about my work at this current stage:

Bringing together the idea of the female form in a consumerist society alongside mass production and mark making is key to my practice. My work is processed based; which focuses on the idea of how the object(s) was/were made rather than the idea of striving to finalize a particular concept or piece of work.

The idea of mark making/abstract pieces intrigued me as the viewer then has scope to place his or her ideas onto the work I have created. I aim to create work that looks feminine, in the hope that the viewer may recognise this and begin to come up with their own connotations and thought processes about the ideologies of feminism, and hopefully challenge some of their own views about what is going on in the media today.

My work is created in the most feminine way possible, that is, I avoid using phallic objects such as paintbrushes and pens. Instead I create using threads, print making techniques, and cuttings using ‘feminine’ tools such as scissors and pen knives (non-phallic objects with curvatures.) There is then the idea of mass production, so I tend to create multiple examples of one process to tie in this idea of consumerism and exploitation that is vibrant in modern western society.