Joanne Mills

As an artist, I am fascinated by the worlds of the real and the unreal, and the places in which they meet and overlap. This can be represented by objects     such as the mirror, which can be interpreted both literally and as portals to another dimension, the ‘mirror world’ where nothing is as it seems, but where nothing in this world can exist without its polar opposite – light and dark, tragedy and beauty, creation and devastation. 

Equally my work exists in this semi-real dimension – There may be a very clear subject or message in my work, often there is more than one way of looking at it – the viewer’s own vision is as unique and important as my own. 

We all possess the potential to imagine, to create alternative and impractical scenarios, and I am fascinated by art that both expresses the child-like sense of play and makes the impossible possible, such as the work of the Surrealist photographers, and the recent developments in creating interactive spaces to explore using virtual environments such as Second Life.

My long-standing interest in fairytales, myths, legends and gothic literature further ties in with the idea of the looking glass world where nothing is what it seems – the beautiful can be deadly, humans can fly, and anything is possible. 

My own practice stems from this, as I aim to create immersive spaces for the spectator to interact with and explore, or which hint at the unknown space beyond – that the spectator can experience if they choose to ‘step inside’.

The research that I undertake runs very closely with the work that I produce, focusing on the space between the real and unreal, and the interaction between the spectator and an artwork.