Postpartum Thoughts
I have been thinking about my work exhibited this year intently - the work remains about identity and post modernism. That would be the generic analysis. As I make, and I think about the work in retrospect, it seems that every time I make & exhibit, I manage to dig slightly deeper into what it is all about. (download the pdf beneath to take a look at the work)
Exhibition Catalog
.pdf
Download PDF • 28.96MB
The work is about how easy it is to shift into and out of various identities in the post modern era. It's about how a person's identity can grow, and evolve according to which environment that persona is in or out of. It is how a person can have multiple identities - a woven set of selfs - and be true to each of them as a whole but also on an individual level. And it is also how stagnation can lead to the death of multiple selfs, and merely maintain the one uncarved, unetched self - which was the starting point.
Yiota Dimitriou, of Skala Times (a local online newspaper) invited me to an interview. The questions allowed me to think about the work more, (to read the interview click here) and made me realise how much I left unsaid, unresearched. But, it also got me thinking of what elements within the work I would like to work with more. These are:
1. The borders between neighboring colors. A linear and evident manifestation of borders/boundaries, opposing post modernism
2. Translucency; the importance of translucency within my work is not so transparent. I began looking at translucency when I made Clara; her translucent elements allowed her to interact with every environment that she was is, and at times, this translucency negated her existence. Definitions on the web say that translucent means,
Shining through. Easily perceived; lucid; clear. Letting light pass but diffusing it so that objects on the other side cannot be clearly distinguished; partially transparent, as frosted glass. Allowing radiation (most commonly light) to pass through, but causing diffusion.
Translucent is often confused with transparent, What does transparency represent? Transparency in a process involves it being completely visible and open to scrutiny, so that it's clear that nothing is being hidden. This sense of the word is especially used in the context of politicians, government agencies, and businesses and calls for them to be more transparent or increase their transparency.
The difference between translucent and transparent is that,
Materials like air, water, and clear glass are called transparent. When light encounters transparent materials, almost all of it passes directly through them. Glass, for example, is transparent to all visible light. Translucent objects allow some light to travel through them.
So, I guess I am interested in a combination of the two. And I have been thinking why. I think it's because when an object maintains its transparent or translucent elements, it is allowed to remain itself, whilst interacting with the environment it is set in. It is also allowed to evolve, to grow an additional self because it changes, like a chameleon, according to the environment it is in. In addition, light and dark are also factors to consider because their strength (according to the environment they are in) determines the scale of transparency/translucency permitted. If a translucent object is set in a dark room, (dark power high), its transparency on a scale of 1-10, is probably a 1 or a 2. Within a light filled room, transparency could have a power of 8 or 9.
Transparency : - most often used to refer to processes and procedures,
a metaphor suggesting that having all there is in view directly and transparently fuels our knowledge and understanding of something
This could be applied to the work itself, the message I want the work to communicate, view of the materials+media used, and maybe it could also reflect on me an artist. I trust there are more factors to analyse and think about but only these come to mind.
3. DIY Materials - why do I enjoy using DIY?
Materials are a very important component within making. They inform form and content within the art work, and I believe that because there is such a plethora of options, and option making within the DIY world (a construct made of more constructs), it gives me the freedom as an artist to make without apprehension and cause. Saying that, I have realized the in the past year I have been compiling a bunch of arte povera ( “poor art” and refers to the everyday, common materials the artists used to create their work) Read about arte povera artists here. Naturally, I had also been looking at domestic, disregarded items - disregarded in the sense of used, and of uncatergorised as art materials. And I believe that the more underestimated a material is as an art material, the greater the surprises it holds when an artist interacts and intervenes with it.
