Anna B
The central theme of my work revolves around the entropy and decay of architectural structures through time. My work explores the relationship between man-made architectural structures and nature, and how, over time and lack of care, nature will end up taking over what we have left. My pieces additionally look at finding the beauty in decay and appreciating what isn’t. In my works, I look at different textures of decay, focusing on snapshots of buildings and specific features to analyze the textures and decay. My pieces look at the various aspects of decay, such as mold, plants growing into structures, water damage, or cracks in the materials that have occurred over time.
Inspiration for the exhibition came from observing the environment around me and analyzing decaying architectural structures. Throughout the creation of my works, my two main inspirations have been John Piper, and Anselm Kiefer, who both look at these themes of decay in their works. John Piper looks at the effects after war through capturing snapshots of buildings, similarly, I focus on details of buildings and textures to show decay. Anselm Kiefer also shows decay in his works but does this through physically leaving his pieces for an extended period so they degrade naturally. Like Kiefer, I tried to force this aspect of decay through pushing the boundaries of the materials I was working with. For instance, my piece “Faces of Decay” is a good example to demonstrate these different inspirations and resembles Anselm Kiefer’s works as it shares the aspects of natural decay that has happened over time. And resembles Piper’s through the architectural decay and degradation.
My piece “Nature’s Window” is a key piece that represents my theme. As the depiction of nature growing through the windows and taking over this abandoned building. The use of materials shows my interest in the textures of decay; for this piece, I used plaster, wood, and paper leaves to show the variety of texture that can be found in these environments and the beauty that comes with them. This piece has a lot of texture in the way that I made the walls with plaster and added pieces of wood to make the different parts of the window. This piece has a lot of 3D elements, which allows the leaves and texture to stand out, focusing on the nature element of this piece.
During the creation of my pieces, I found myself pushing the limits of what I was comfortable with. As I found myself making pieces a lot bigger than I thought I would, that pushed me to test different ways of working and find different techniques that would be more suited for bigger surfaces. The variety of textures was important to me as it would make each piece unique, because it would have to look at a different architectural structure that used different materials to achieve the variety in textures. One technique I learned was dry brushing, which is a technique of applying acrylic paint with a dry paintbrush, which helps get a lot of details and texture on big surfaces in a short amount of time.
My exhibition space has been set up in a way where the viewer follows how at the start of the creation of pieces I looked more at bigger fragments of images and then how my exhibition works focus more on smaller simpler details. One piece that focuses on the small detail would be my piece “Textures of Decay” where I look at the different textures found in my other pieces and combine them into a series.
Ultimately, my pieces aim to show the audience how things we once cared about and took care of can be forgotten and lost in time, and the relationship between man made objects and nature. My pieces look at finding beauty in what is not typically beautiful and learning to appreciate what is overlooked.
Nature’s Window (May 2024)
Plaster, acrylic paint, gesso, wood, and paper
84x84cm
This piece was inspired by the decay of a building and how nature reclaims that space. I made this piece using plaster to create the texture and acrylic paint for the colors. I was inspired by Valerie Hegarty as we share the theme of decay. The monochromatic colors accentuate the green of the leaves and make them stand out. This piece looks at how nature eventually takes over what humans leave behind, which is shown through the leaves growing through the window into the house.
Nature’s Turn (March 2025)
Ceramic
13x40x27cm
This piece was made from ceramic clay and shows a rock as a symbol of nature taking over man-made structures once they have been abandoned. For the rock, I used many different objects to create the texture such as cloths, rocks, bracelets, and brushes. The color of this piece represents nature which is show through the rock and buildings as they become one. I was inspired by Mary O’Malley who creates sculptures with nature incorporated.
Decay (February 2024)
Charcoal
55x38cm
This piece was inspired by a photo online of a decaying building in nature. I found that it fit my theme of the breakdown of society and how nature takes over. For this piece, I used charcoal to recreate the image in black and white which allowed me to get proper shading and emphasize the decay. I was inspired by artists such as Kurar and Marie-Laure Vareilles who look at similar themes to me. Furthermore, I looked at the effects of neglect shown through this abandoned building.
Organic Shape (December 2023)
Ceramic
20x28x7cm
An organic sculpture made out of clay, I was inspired by textures and shapes in the environment around me. I used the textures of the wall as a mold to create the textures on the strips to add more dimension and depth. This piece demonstrates a more abstract way of looking at growth which comes in the form of the organic shapes on top of the main sculpture. I was also inspired by Peter Beard’s sculptures with organic shapes and textures.
