I seem to hover somewhere between abstraction and realism, I find it hard to be abstract
This drawing started as a blind contour drawing, and like most of my drawings I end up interfering to get it to look ‘right’
The watercolours and monoprinting help me to be a little less realistic, working with very short poses and not having time to fuss
Finally, I am delighted that Division III, a work that I made during the summer break on the MA has been selected for the MA & Other Postgraduates Exhibition 2018 at the Atkinson Gallery 2018
Division III is part of a series of work combining gold with found objects to illustrate thoughts about social division and income inequality.
The objects are often discarded or forgotten unwanted items, influenced by my research on Japanese Aesthetics. Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold, recognising the history of the object and visibly incorporating the repair making it more beautiful than the original. This relates to the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, beauty seen in imperfection, impermanent and incomplete. Kintsugi emerged from the regret of something being wasted and the acceptance of change.
With Division III, I have used two worn unwanted bobbins and bobbin holder from an old manual sewing machine. One of the bobbins has been gold leafed on the top and the other has Japanese Real Gold thread wound around it. These particular objects also relate to my work based on the plight of the garment workers, so many of who are poorly paid, working in extreme harsh environments while huge profits are made by big companies and brands.