Degree Show Fever
Excitement mounts this week as we prepare our studio space for the degree show. Having to pare down the vast mound of work accumulated over my final year to select a few pieces that best represent me in the small patch of space allocated has been an illuminating exercise.
Displacement
The theme of Displacement is represented in my work of the same name. My interest lies in new theories of the movement of civilisation from West to East in ancient times, traced through evidence in weaving patterns and cloth samples among other things. I was fascinated by similarities I noticed in ancient Japanese stitched symbols such as 'Hirayamamichi', a protective pattern sewn on the edges of a garment to ward off evil spirits, to Guanche cave markings and ritualistic stone carvings. The idea that traces of different cultures may be picked up along the way when people are displaced led me to make a composite piece where these could be brought together. Displacement in current times, such as that happening in Syria, is represented in my work by flour bags from the Middle East, which are used by refugees to create tents, as mentioned in a previous post. Another source for my work was 'The Thread', a well-researched novel by Victoria Hislop about the displacement of people in early 20th century Asia Minor and Greece, which I can highly recommend as a great read.
Lilith and her Babies
The Cave of a Thousand Mummies that I learned about in my research on the Guanche civilisation led me to investigate ancient methods of imprinting onto cloth. Only a few mummies remain in existence from this find and their images were a source of fascination for me. This line of enquiry, along with research into the work of Anselm Kiefer which I viewed in Berlin, developed into my work 'Lilith and her Babies'.
My underlying focus here is redressing the balance of the maligned (in my mind) image of Lilith as the dark feminine. It is truly shocking in the 21st century that women are still subject to the levels of abuse and atrocities that prevail around the globe. Women still carry much of the burden of shame and fear in society. 'My' Lilith is bathed in warm, soft feminine lighting. The work is formed from up-cycled Ikea spare parts, as Lilith is a woman of our time who likes to up-cycle, and appreciates simple cost-effective design products. There are eleven 'babies' incubating in my jar. My aim post-degree show is to work each 'baby' into a new piece, to accumulate over time a new body of work which will question and highlight aspects of shame and fear, that for me are the true meaning of the dark feminine.
Displacement
The theme of Displacement is represented in my work of the same name. My interest lies in new theories of the movement of civilisation from West to East in ancient times, traced through evidence in weaving patterns and cloth samples among other things. I was fascinated by similarities I noticed in ancient Japanese stitched symbols such as 'Hirayamamichi', a protective pattern sewn on the edges of a garment to ward off evil spirits, to Guanche cave markings and ritualistic stone carvings. The idea that traces of different cultures may be picked up along the way when people are displaced led me to make a composite piece where these could be brought together. Displacement in current times, such as that happening in Syria, is represented in my work by flour bags from the Middle East, which are used by refugees to create tents, as mentioned in a previous post. Another source for my work was 'The Thread', a well-researched novel by Victoria Hislop about the displacement of people in early 20th century Asia Minor and Greece, which I can highly recommend as a great read.
Lilith and her Babies
The Cave of a Thousand Mummies that I learned about in my research on the Guanche civilisation led me to investigate ancient methods of imprinting onto cloth. Only a few mummies remain in existence from this find and their images were a source of fascination for me. This line of enquiry, along with research into the work of Anselm Kiefer which I viewed in Berlin, developed into my work 'Lilith and her Babies'.
My underlying focus here is redressing the balance of the maligned (in my mind) image of Lilith as the dark feminine. It is truly shocking in the 21st century that women are still subject to the levels of abuse and atrocities that prevail around the globe. Women still carry much of the burden of shame and fear in society. 'My' Lilith is bathed in warm, soft feminine lighting. The work is formed from up-cycled Ikea spare parts, as Lilith is a woman of our time who likes to up-cycle, and appreciates simple cost-effective design products. There are eleven 'babies' incubating in my jar. My aim post-degree show is to work each 'baby' into a new piece, to accumulate over time a new body of work which will question and highlight aspects of shame and fear, that for me are the true meaning of the dark feminine.
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Hello Barbara, I stayed at an interesting hotel in Tenerife recently which was built near a nature reserve called San Blas where Guanches used to live. We saw a guanche reenactment in the reserve and there was a museum in the hotel with lots of guanche artefacts and a thing a bit like Dynamic earth where you experienced different rooms showing what life was like at different times. There was a cave in the reserve where they used to live.
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