Francesca SotaAugmentum
My intentions for this piece were to work around the concepts of the flesh and the notion of the ill body. These sculptures represent my interpretation of the ill human body. Externalising that which is usually hidden from us and putting the hidden on show. Through the sculptures I have tried to duplicate a sense of the organic, by using the plants to give the impression of the untamed and that of the natural. The plants symbolise illness, embodying the felling of growth and being alive. All the plants I have used, have medical and or homeopathic attributes.
The masks were created so that they are non-gender specific and that they are relatable but unidentifiable. These have been made with the traits of skin in mind, showing the pore-like texture and a transparency, mimicking the thin membrane.
The masks have a strong resemblance to traditional death masks and veiled mourning figures, although death is not a concept that I am strongly enforcing.
Suzanne Ray
Held In The Memories Of Others
"We look at people’s faces in photographs with an intensity and intimacy that in life we would only normally reserve for the extreme emotional states – for a first look at someone we may sleep with, or the last look at someone we love"*
There is an importance, personally and socially for ceremonies and memorials when someone dies. This helps us to come to terms with, let go and separate the dead from the living. This in turn helps us to come to terms with our own inevitable fate and confront the universal fear of our own extinction.
This piece is very much about our deep human need to be remembered and to be held in the memories of others. A funeral order service is an object, which encapsulates all of this and more.
The photograph used on the front cover of the order of service holds its own importance, as it has been used to represent the person. The sorting and choosing of the photograph is pivotal to the process of memorial. For the person that knows the loved one in the photograph, it holds and encapsulates that person’s personality, their essence, their being.
The wax tablets resonate with the idea of devotional candles. The blank tenth tablet is left open to the viewer, which also references the uncountable blank order of services and our inevitable fate.
* Gumpert, L. (1994) Christian Boltanski. France. Flammarion
Rebecca West
Untitled
My practices are concerned with concepts of femininity, vulnerability, sexuality, and women. I am influenced by cinema and popular culture. I wish to refer to the work of Edward Hopper, Gregory Crewson, Cindy Sherman whose work has a strong narrative, sense of theatrically and characterisation and sense of place. My prints are not self portraits even though I am the subject of my work as Cindy Sherman that she disappear in her work that she does see her self in her film stills. I was influenced by Cindy Sherman's untitled film stills in which she assumes female identities, revealing gender as an unstable and socially constructed, leaning towards the assumption that there is no innate biological female identity. As judith butler argues, it is learnt by performance the act of gender, femininity. Whilst taking my original photographs it was my intention for the lighting and composition to resemble that of the film noir, illuminating the face and upper body. My characters are inspired by Hitchcock heroines, the femme fatals of film noir. I have produced a series of prints that lead into each other, the head of the imaginary actress moves gradually up in a series of four prints, with a landscape print to secure a narrative, as a ambiguous statement and I hope to add a sinister element. I repeated this series four times and hang them in adjacent lines.
Melanie Burke
Copy me do
"Copy me do" is a synchronized sound and projection installation that attempts to highlight and mimic the relationship between what is formally taught and what is passively learned through the process of non-verbal communication and cultural socialisation. Much emphasis is attached to the spoken language, however the learning process begins long before the ability to speak is grasped as children learn to make sense of both verbal and non-verbal gestures and sounds that carry un-discussed meaning. These non-verbal styles are distinctive to all cultures for example people from Caribbean communities may "Kiss their teeth" when angry, frustrated or showing descent. The act and its correct use is not normally taught or explained but experienced naturally as part of the socialisation process within the domestic space where culture is first learned. Taking the lead from YouTube English pronunciation videos, the projection instructs the viewer how to perform the vocalisations out of context in an unnatural way yet, when used in context no instruction is required.
The kinetic sound box responds with the use of motion sensors to the projected image in its own copied version.
Hannah Colbron
Did You Hear...
Second wave feminists gave up house hold crafts in order to break down the notions of what women were capable of, in contemporary society third wave feminists believe it is a reward for them to re-connect with these traditional activities and in doing so they hope to re-build the community that once existed.
In traditional times women would gather together to quilt, this way they could socialize but be doing something of use at the same time. This became a very communal activity and the quilts would often be donated to those who needed them the most, this helped to keep the community close and became a frequent way for people to support one another.
By combining traditional quilting techniques with embroidered text, you gain a sense of how much the community has changed in contemporary society. It gives us an insight in to how gossip gets passed from house to house, its content changing every time a new person hears or tells it.
We love to hear the latest news, but we will rarely stop and try to help or resolve any problems, we just pass them on.
Sit on the chairs and interact with the quilt and allow yourself to question whether the act of the handmade really can re-define our community life as we know it.
Jushima Mardushaj
Memoirs...
I went back home last winter and came across an old album. It consisted of my childhood photos together with some of my family and friends. This old album made me very curious as I was not aware that they existed, the photographer was anonymous or forgotten and now these events are stuck back in time and cannot be repeated.
So I decided recreate a second collection of old photos. Throughout my work there is a strong interest in ‘myself’ looking at my own childhood photos as being the third person and at the same time getting the viewers involved.
‘Memoirs’ is a piece about trying to overpower the photographer’s choices and decisions that he related to when taking those photos. The idea of looking through the images allows the viewer to take the place of the ‘operator’ and perform the same method of looking through the lenses (like the photographer) and also choosing where and how to look at them.
The viewers have then completed the context by becoming the third people looking at the object.
Zsofia Szabo
Imprints
We all leave something to our children and the next generations. This can be property, jewellery, money or nice memories. Even if we don’t want to leave anything we do have an impact. This is called nowdays ‘carbon footprint’.
The main motive of my current work considers the idea of endurance, which here means that the materials of scattered litter (mostly aluminium and plastic) not only to cause lasting damage to nature but breaks down in 100-1000 years. By the time the garbage degrades we will be long gone and the only thing would be left after us is the rubbish and its imprints.
The intentions behind my work is to make people think about the problem, bring awareness and to engage with the issues of rubbish.
