University of Lincoln

I have been struggling with deciding the best way to display my work in the degree show. My work has been influenced by Phyllida Barlow’s use of space and the impact this has upon the audience, forcing them to participate in a particular way.

The interpretation of my work would differ quite significantly between the traditional white cube setting and a non-chalent setting (which I am currently leaning more towards).

Recently I took my work back to the coast and photographed it against the setting it originated from. This brought out the reflective qualities of the graphite that can’t be seen within the artificial light of the studio and also the rellationships and tensions between the object and surroundings. Now to make decision.

As the surroundings can’t be brought back to Stamford I am considering using some of the photographs and easily transportable materials, such as sand.

So it’s almost the end of the third year, soon the security of the studio will be gone and whilst I’m excited for the future, I’m also terrified!

My studio practice has slowly progressed to a point where I almost felt I had a grip on it, now I’m not so sure again. This year pieces have originated from the wrapping and encasement of objects creating internal structural skeletons that form the contours of the outer, existing almost entirely disconnected from the surface of the form. The found objects contain a relationship with a past experience and a separated literal memory of that object is created in the form of removed coverings. These pieces can often appear ‘unfriendly’ with a somewhat unsettling feeling to them.

Recently I have also been using discarded packaging materials in place of the more solid washed up ones found on the coast. Whilst these have allowed me to consider the structures of the materials in relation to the previous ones I feel the ‘unstructured’ structure has become restrictive. For a while now I have been considering taking the objects back through the journey they travelled and to the locations I removed them from. Recently I finally got around to doing this.