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Zara

My exhibition aims to explore ideas related to environment, degradation and body horror, and therefore has a mix of two different visual themes: figurative work and more imaginative work. I sought to use body horror, a subgenre of horror involving the fear of uncontrollable change in the human body, to represent the very close relationship between humanity and its environment, and therefore showing how the destruction of our environment would entail our own destruction as well. The central themes are influenced by my own experience growing up in a political and social context that was growing increasingly influenced by environmental disasters such as global warming and climate change becoming more prominent, and the fear of our planet becoming inhabitable becoming increasingly prevalent. I intend to provoke thought on this concept through works mostly involving the human body and nature, and the relationship between the two. I utilised the mediums of acrylic painting, clay sculpture, mixed media with wood, plaster and acrylic paint, chalk and charcoal drawing, and animation to communicate these themes.

To explore this I resolved to keep a recurring motif of nature within all of my pieces, often interwoven with the human form. This is especially evident in pieces such as Xiao, which shows a human bust with animalistic tusks and horns, or my painting Angel, which shows an angelic figure whose face is opening up into the form of a flower. This grotesque depiction of nature combined with humanity is meant to showcase our interchangeability with the environment, and the self-destructive nature our treatment of it has. This concept relates strongly to one of my key artistic inspirations, Kate Macdowell, who also used body horror in ceramic pieces to express her opinions on environmental politics, along with Anselm Kiefer, who explores the nature of guilt and accountability in his confronting mixed media paintings. I also took inspiration from them in the materials I used, experimenting with ceramics in Exposed and Xiao and a more multimedia approach in the use of plaster in Scavengers. I found ceramics to be my favourite material to work with, as it was enjoyably tactile to work with and I’m happy with both final ceramic pieces. I struggled with mixed media more, especially as the approach I took with the plaster meant the piece was significantly more time consuming than I could afford at that point in the year.

I have been given a very linear area to set up my exhibition, and therefore my pieces are arranged to suit. Scavengers is placed closest to the entrance, as it introduces my central point the clearest and sets the tone for the rest of the exhibition. This will also increase the exhibition’s impact, as Scavengers is an especially shocking piece and therefore catches the viewer’s eye immediately. I have placed both my largely and more impactful pieces (Winterscape and Scavengers) at either end of my exhibition, which are also the pieces that represent my theme the best, therefore balancing the visual weight of the exhibition and ensuring my theme is consistent throughout. The pieces that are less related to my conceptual theme, such as the life drawings and chalk and charcoal piece, have been spread out evenly throughout the centre of the exhibition. I placed my ceramic pieces near to the paintings that would complement them the best, so Xiao was placed next to Concealed as they both depict the human face, whereas Exposed is placed next to the chalk and charcoal piece as the design of the sculpture was inspired by the leaves in the figurative piece.

Through presenting this body of work, I hope to communicate my core concepts to my audience in a manner that can provoke the audience to question my work, both on an aesthetic and conceptual level. Body horror can be an excellent medium to represent many things, one of which is my theme of environmental degradation, but it can also be seen as a metaphor for psychological turmoil, and the commonly felt fears of growing up and changing in manners out of your control. I hope that through this flexible central concept, each viewer can find their own way to engage and identify with my work.
 

 

 

Scavengers (March 2024)

Mixed media - Wood, plaster, acrylic paint

149 cm x 85 cm

Scavengers is intended to represent the parasitic relationship humanity has with the earth, placing a scavenger animal (the hyena) in place of ourselves. I represented this figure wearing army fatigues to connect this concept to both human establishments now made defunct and to human violence. Jane Alexander’s sculptures distorted the figure in similar ways, replacing the head of a human body with an animal head, and the mix of different textures Kiefer uses inspiring the multimedia approach.

 

 

Concertina: Nature in the city (October 2022)

Multimedia

28 cm x 129 cm

Nature in the city is meant to show the slivers of life that creeps through the stark concrete of Paris through depicting plant-life with man made structures such as walls, bridges, and park benches. To break up the blank white paper I used ripped up dictionary pages, masking tape, and plaster thinner, adding texture and giving a three-dimensional sense to the piece, then drawing from photos I took overtop. It is inspired by Karen Stamper, who creates multimedia works inspired from her travels.

 

 

 

Observe (June 2023)

Flipaclip animation 

1.6MB

Observe is intended to represent the fear of being watched, observed and judged, especially in relation to your own body. This was achieved through first the sketch of a live model with ink on paper, and then the animation in the software ‘Flipaclip’ of the eyes opening and closing overtop. This also connects to my ongoing motifs of angels, as I continue to allude to the biblical representation of angels through the multiple eyes. 

 

Angel (March 2024)

Acrylic paint on canvas

56 cm x 44 cm

Angel is intended to represent the relationship between humans and nature through the mutation of the figure’s face, peeling outward to mirror the shape of a flower. I intended to imply the figure was an angel through the multiple eyes, alluding to biblical descriptions of angels. As angels are often said to be messengers of God, I used this imagery to imply the painting itself is a message. I used watered down acrylic paint for the angel’s face and then darker colours for the exposed meat. 

 

 

Exposed (November 2022)

Ceramic and oxides

19 x 17 x 2cm 

Exposed is intended to represent human beings and their connection to nature and decay, through depicting a leaf with exposed human ribs on the inside, replacing the stems or ‘bones’ of the leaf. I came up with this idea by looking at different representations of decay within nature, including the idea of skeletons and the anatomy of leaves. It is inspired by the work of Kate Macdowell, who creates ceramics to communicate a political message about the degradation of the environment.
 

 

Crumbling Ivy  (October 2022)

Charcoal and chalk on paper

49 cm x 50 cm

Crumbling Ivy is meant to represent decay in everyday life, juxtaposing the natural rot of the ivy with the concrete wall behind it. Only charcoal and chalk were used in this piece to increase the tonal contrast between the black and white, linking to the idea of separation between man made structures and nature. This piece was drawn from a photo I took, which was then altered to black and white. It’s inspired from the work of Sam Szafran, who depicts nature with pastels and watercolours. 

 

 

Life drawing (October 2022)

Chalk on black paper

59 cm x 22 cm

Life drawing is a piece I sketched in ten minutes of a live model in my life drawing class. This particular exercise was intended to practise focusing on where the light hit our model, allowing us to develop our anatomy and shading skills. Chalk on black paper was the best way to explore lighting in as simplistic a manner as possible, while the tight timing encouraged me to only focus on basic shapes to get the form across as quickly and efficiently as possible.
 

 

 

Concealed (November 2023)

Acrylic paint on paper

65 cm x 50 cm

Concealed utilises a variety of different painting techniques I worked from a photo I found from Pinterest, and tried to keep within my theme of slightly uncanny, unsettling works with a ghost-like colour palette. I have used a painted blindfold to conceal the figure’s face, keeping with the recurring motif of warped or obscured faces in my works. I share this motif with Magritte, who also often concealed the faces of his subjects. 

 

Xiao (March 2024)

Ceramic

43 cm x 27 cm x 16 cm 

Xiao is intended to represent humanity’s roots as animals rather than the hypermodern artificiality of the present. I did this through using natural materials to create the sculpture, such as clay and soot-blackening for the colour, and giving the figure animalistic traits such as tusks and horns. The lack of eyes show the hollowness of the figure, alluding to how it is only an imitation of humanity and lacks an inner world. This piece was strongly inspired by Jane Alexander’s sculptures.

 

 

Winterscape (June 2023)

Acrylic paint on canvas

158 cm x 100 cm

Winterscape is intended to represent the isolation of living in a remote place, along with the inherent horror of an atrocity occurring with no one around to mark its passing. I used acrylic paint for this piece as it allowed me to work with the scale I wanted for this piece. I chose the larger scale with an emptier composition to emphasise the insignificance of the tragedy that occurred within the painting, choosing to instead focus on the sky and the forest. This piece was strongly influenced by Anselm Kiefer’s works.