Acetone Prints
I have included 2 of my acetone prints of images I took at Tranmer House in my show. The top image is a wedding photo which I distorted in Photoshop. It is a link to home life, marriage, family and memories. The bottom image is a chair. In my dissertation I wrote about Rachel Whiteread’s sculptures Ghost and House. Ghost is a cast of a living room taken from a Victorian terrace house and House is cast of a life size house, both have traces of a living family home. The thick plaster used has trapped the marks of human existence and domestic life. In the same way the chair I photographed at Tranmer House had captured and revealed life by the markings on the fabric covered seat. Both prints have a ghostly feel. They are an echo of identity and family memories revealed for all to see.
My family photograph album is a mix of original photographs which came with the album and my own photoshopped imagery.
Abigail Lane is an artist I have been looking at. Her work Bloody Wallpaper is a silkscreen image printed onto lining paper. The blood shown in the repeated image on the paper is taken from the blood splatters shown in a 1950s forensic photograph taken at a crime scene. Lane has digitally lifted the blood marks and handprints from the victim shown in the photo and enlarged them to life size.
I used the technique of laying a real blood splatter image over a photoshoped image of a mugshot. The resulting image is strong and unsettling and I have used this as the final image in the family album for my degree show.
Sarah Bale (2016) Untitled [digital layered image]
Fingerprints on the table are revealed by Blue Star
The small table on which the family album sits is covered in blue fingerprints. This is a link to Blue Star which is used in forensic detection.
Sarah Bale (2016) God’s Eye View [ink on paper]
By using a camera on a tripod in a crime scene a ‘God’s eye view’ is taken with the resulting photograph. This way of viewing a body shows the crime victim from high above and shows the angle of limbs and so reveals if the corpse has been moved. As well as being a disterbing view point the body also has the feeling of floating above the floor, which adds to the feeling of the uncanny.
Mugshots, Degree Show
Marlene Dumas is an artist who has greatly influenced my work. She uses photographs and draws with brushes creating powerful imagery. Each mark she makes on the paper, whether a line or an inky wash has the ability to disturb and haunt the viewer. This is something I have tried to achieve with my mugshot portraits. My portraits are uncomfortable viewing which reveal a disturbing side to these women’s personalities. Seeing Dumas’ exhibition in London last year changed the way I saw my own work and opened my eyes to a new way of drawing and expressing emotion in a portrait.
Sarah Bale (2016) Crime Scene [ink on paper]
It must have been about 5 years ago that I visited an exhibition at the Saatchi Galley and saw the work of Dawn Clements. It was only in the last few weeks ago I remembered her work. It’s funny how things stick in your brain and then suddenly appear! When I looked at her images I was struck by how much her drawings relates to my own. She is also inspired by films and uses ink to create domestic interiors. My inked interiors have splattering’s of blue and other clues.
Sarah Bale (2016) Insect Informer [ink on paper]
The fly is attracted to the evidence on the woman’s necklace.
Sarah Bale (2016) Staircase [ink and charcoal on paper]
The stairs are inspired by the staircase in Psycho and the Babadook. Films that both play with the notion of the uncanny, the mother and the home. Here is a quote by Alfred Hitchcock which relates to inked interiors.
‘Here we have a quiet little motel tucked away off the main highway, and as you see, perfectly harmless looking, when in fact it has now become known as the scene of the crime. This motel also has as an adjunct old house which is, if I may say so, a little more sinister looking, less innocent than the motel itself. And in this house, the most dire horrible events took place. (Hitchcock, 1960)
Box room in my degree show space
My small room installations were inspired by The Nutshell Studies. In my dissertation I wrote about Louise Bourgeois’ dark, eerie installations called Cells. These dark domestic interiors were also inspiration for my own small rooms. Articulated Lair is one of Bourgeois Cell’s. It is made up of eleven feet high giant black and white tall folding screens leading to an escape through the exit door. Gaps between the panels allow the viewer to look out, but also create the feeling of being watched. It is this feeling of being watched and watching I wanted to make with the peep holes in my rooms. I also wanted to control what the viewer sees by making only 2 holes on each box. And of course there is the issue of light. More holes would have let more natural light it. Not being able to see inside the boxes until the light switch is press adds to a feeling of apprehension and unknowing.
Looking through the peep hole to see inside the room
The design of the two boxed rooms is based on Ai weiwei’ S.A.C.R.E.D installations. To see inside S.A.C.R.E.D the viewer looks inside small windows to see Ai’s nightmarish cell which was his home for 81 days. When the viewer’s look through the peep holes into my domestic boxed rooms, I want them to have the realization that they are looking at domestic dolls house sized prison with no doors or windows. I am using the narrative of entrapment and terror. Smashed china on the kitchen floor is a symbol to the horror that has happened inside the room. As they look inside the dark murky spaces they will see the faces of women and heads stare out at them from the wallpaper. I want them to reflect upon hidden terrors and reach inside their subconscious to reveal their own personal memories and difficult experiences of the home, and ultimately experience the uncanny.
Left: Sarah Bale (2015) Annie [ink on canvas]
Right: Sarah Bale (2015) Poisonous Flower [ ink on canvas]
Annie is a deeply psychologically disturbing portrayal of the metal shattering of a young woman. The wallpaper is covered with a deadly Poisonous Flower . Are both women a victim of circumstances or are they innately evil? That is for the viewer to decide.
Sarah Bale (2016) She Wouldn’t Hurt a Fly [ fly in insect display case]
She wouldn’t hurt a fly? Or would she?
