I’ve been pointed in the direction of the work of Helen Chadwick and was instantly intrigued. I like how links seem to pop up just at the right point, when they seem to fit perfectly into this time. Initially as in the last post, I was interested in her questioning of her own issues in work like Ego Geometria Sum, then the more I researched, the more interesting and varied material I found.
I like:
– The way materials she uses are so conflicting
– the instantaneous repulsion and seduction
– it can be shocking but not gratuitously
Effluvia, 1994, Helen Chadwick (Installation view from the exhibition Helen Chadwick: Effluvia, Serpentine Gallery), London (20 July – 29 August 1994)
Available at: http://www.serpentinegalleries.org/exhibitions-events/helen-chadwick-effluvia
Loop My Loop, 1991, Helen Chadwick, (photograph of human hair and pigs bladder)
Available at: http://imageobjecttext.com/2012/04/09/sensory-overload/
Both the images above are intended to be repugnant but seductive simultaneously. I find myself initially, adequately repulsed by the pigs bladder in Loop My Loop, and the awkward shape of the phallus and oozing chocolate in Effluvia, then seduced. However, although I’m seduced by the objects within the work, the pretty gold hair and the velvety, warm smoothness of the chocolate, I’m also seduced by the concept. I like what she’s done because I feel like my emotions have been toyed with and then comes a realisation of the idea behind that emotional ride.
Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s her work became richer and more direct in impact. A fountain of thick chocolate called Cacao carried associations both of excessive physical desire and pleasure, at the same time being base and nauseating.
(http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/helen-chadwick-2253)
This quote from the Tate website highlights another element of her work I find exciting. “her work became richer and more direct in impact”. I like this. This is the kind of thing I’m aiming for. Whether I’m capable of it is a whole other question but I can only try. It brings me back again to a question that I keep asking myself:
How can I make my work seductive yet repulsive, intelligent and impactful in a similar way????
Although, as I’ve mentioned in the last post, some of the ideas that come into my thoughts seem initially repulsive, I’m beginning to understand that that repulsion can be a good thing if dealt with in the right way. ‘In your face’ feels inappropriate, it’s been done and can easily become cliché. The brash ‘ladette’ style of feminism has had it’s time and I’m getting the feeling that a more eloquent voicing of opinion is the way to go.
