This year has been a massive journey for my work. I began this year in the plan of exploring collections through the display and interpreting a collection and even what is a collection? I found the project really enjoyable at the beginning of the year then everything was going on with the dissertation my studio work didn’t seem to be developing as much as I wanted it to. The dissertation brought so many new theorists and artists into light I felt bombarded by the amounts of information I was gathering about collections. How was my work even relevant to these real in depth works I was finding. My work didn’t have any deep meaning. Yes I was interested in collecting and began to want it to be personal to me, it just wasn’t really going anywhere. I have been interested in collecting throughout my years at uni, however surely I could make my work deeper I just wasn’t sure how. I was finding all this information realising that debates have been going on about collecting for so many years I don’t think there will ever be a real definite answer to ‘What is a collection?’ I had planned to explore the interpretation of display within collecting too, but surely display is an important factor in all types of art. Could I really create a good degree show investigating this? I felt my project proposal was too wide I hadn’t really homed in on what I actually wanted to explore. I was at a dead end for a while with everything going on with the dissertation.
However once I began exploring biographical and auto-biographical collections in my dissertation I really got engaged with this subject it was captivating me, making me want to delve in deeper. I have always been a fan of Tracey Emin especially after visiting her exhibition at The Hayward Gallery, London, where she exhibited rooms and rooms full of her work. This was very inspiring to see. Her piece, ‘The History of Painting’, was one of the most intriguing pieces I have seen. Why would anyone display used tampons? My mum accompanied me to this exhibition. She was shocked at how abject her work was. Why would someone do that? It provoked a lot of questions. Why? What was the meaning? Does she find it disgusting? Why hasn’t she covered them? I did find this so shocking at the time, but afterwards provoked so much response which is obviously good that Emin gets this. Could I create something that provokes this much response? The challenge had began!
Researching Emin for my dissertation brought back this thoughts and really got me questioning art and collecting. Why would someone collect their tampons and put them on show? But at the same time its so fascinating it gets this response. This is what really got me thinking about my studio studies. My train tickets were personal to me but they could be any-ones train tickets. The frogs were personal to me but anyone can like. frogs. The receipts were personal but again anyone could have purchased the items. I realised I wanted my work to be really Personal like Emin’s. For this to work I knew I had to open up more with my work to make it personal. But how?
This is where the exploration came with the make-up wipes. They were the real starting point to get my work moving. My work then developed through basically collecting myself through objects. These were from used make-up wipes leaving the remains of my face, my used contact lenses, contact lens cases, eyelashes, hair cotton wool. My work really began to take shape. It took a lot of experimentation to know what I wanted to do with this items and how I wanted to display them. Display was a massive part of my work, it just wasn’t the focus like I originally planned, but this didn’t matter my ideas had moved on since then. My plan for the degree show ended up being, I wanted to create a space which portrayed me without actually showing me as a person, it would just be the remains of me. My trace through this space. I also wanted to cause a response from the veiwer. I wanted this abject feeling to my work.
