February was a busy month at Uni, I had to present my latest work in a small group show and also give a presentation of my work.
The latest work is comprised of 4 pieces that were combined together as a whole. It consisted of a projected video, a framed photograph of the slashed Rokeby Venus, a cleaver with gold leaf and an audio recording of Radio 4’s Women’s hour in 1953 when Mary Richardson described her attack on the Rokeby Venus by Velasquez in the National Gallery:
The piece was titled ‘Then and Now’, looking back at the events of the Suffragettes, as this year is the Centenary of the Representation of the People act, and comparing them with what is happening today.
The cleaver had to be secured to comply with health and safety and I felt this enhanced it, adding an air of importance. The image was obtained from the British Newspaper Archive and I framed it because I saw it as a work of art.
It’s a powerful image, I spent a lot of time looking at it, researching the details and thinking about it. I placed the sound recording that you could listen to with headphones next to the piece – http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01lg0br
Alongside this, I projected a video I made from two photographs I took of my friend, who is a life model. She is bound in red thread and bobbins and it was a reflection on the reports I have read about many garment workers suffering from harassment, humiliation and exploitation.
People responded well to the piece, the message was clear and many of the underlying meanings came through. Hard to put in a nutshell and obviously it would help if you actually saw the piece but I have decided to present it as one of my pieces, with a bit of fine tuning, for my end of year show in July.
Meanwhile, here is a selection of February’s watercolours:
