Roz Cran – Seeing Through The Eyes Of The Other
PART 2
During the six years that I’ve know Roz, I have seen her make work which ranges from comforting and comfortable images of fairy cakes and hot water bottles, to unsettling videos of the artist as feral woman clad in leopard skin clothes, running wild; or as a white rabbit, ears flopping, reaching out to a distant Madonna. Is this the stuff of children’s dreams, or nightmares? These extremes demonstrate the range of themes which are central to Roz’s work and the friction which is present from the rubbing between domestic and wild, commonplace and fantastical, past and present.
Roz’s interest in art developed indirectly from her commitment to feminism and her resulting experience of feminist art as a means of expression and communication. Her early work formed an examination of identity, especially women’s identity, often using images linked with the domestic, with women’s work, and the associated suppression of the wild. In the part of her work which Roz calls “Bringing to Light” she interrogates her own links with the past, through personal and family history. She explains how this work was born from an investigation of significant objects which carried a history, imprinted with emotions and stories from earlier generations. Using simple materials and techniques, Roz captures the essence of these objects and some of the meanings which adhere to them. “Bringing to Light” is full of images which seem to appear and disappear. Objects hover in a space which Roz has created from her own experience – from memory. The past and present intertwine as she works with processes and materials which have held a personal significance. Childhood pleasures such as pressing flowers and making books are relived in the production of new objects which create a common ground accessible to all.
To be continued.
The full version of this article can now be downloaded from http://www.judithalder-live.co.uk/project_new_devel.html
