thebodyexhibition-blog

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Fundraising, Kickstarter

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The decision for handouts rather than a catalog

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Alternative Catalog Layout

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Refining our website

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Setting up our website

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Sending an image to Allan

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Catalog drafted designs

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Artist Statements - Refined

Sian Matthews is a fine artist whose practice focusses on collections of found objects and materials and how they merge with repetitive processes and time based displays. These processes manipulate and control the way the viewer looks at everyday occurrences and routines that would otherwise be deemed insignificant.

Eliza Wimperis works with carbon to produce large drawings that exist as a memory of movement. Suspended from above the paper, Wimperis moves disconnected from the ground and with the unpredictable swing and turn of her body in the rigging, her route across the paper is altered.

Freya Bolton’s practice examines the duality of the same experience, as felt in two different places. Bolton’s move to London has influenced her work and textile pieces explore the relationship between body and rain. The Pluviophile suit brings the atmospheric qualities of rain from Preston, to London - and encourages the viewer to explore ideas of escapism from the city.

Megan Lowe creates sculptural self portraits that explore the repression of women throughout art history. By adding elements from her personal experiences and casting from her own body, Lowe explores ideas of femininity and body politics whilst capturing and preserving an imprint of her identity.

Ella Becket is a mixed media artist whose works focus on figurative and abstract ideas. Her pieces explore themes of race, gender equality, relationships and acceptance of the natural female form. Becket works with continual line and implementation of shape to influence expressions and emotions within her portraits.

Through her practice, Kristy Campbell aims to convey a visual language that demonstrates the fluid ambiguity of meaning, and of reading; through discourse, changing contexts, and in a physical communicative style. Her study of semiotics challenges linguistic traditions, methods of curation, and medium, but more intensely it confronts the connotation forced and attached to particular words via experience and perspective.

Rynae Masawi is heavily influenced by her personal experiences as an immigrant child and woman. Masawi’s work comes from an innate passion for freedom of expression, her self portraits an exploration of her own identity. Experimentation and mark making have encouraged crude drawings that reflect Masawi’s relationship with the world around her.

Robin Wallington’s Planes performed by No Dice is an exploration of movement within stasis, and variation within symmetry. The piece relies heavily on sustained, carefully coloured tones, requiring absolute control from the players, as such, it is also something of an exercise in physical stamina.

Jessica Nash is a photographic artist who works with the medium to visually communicate an anxiety of touch. Nash’s practice was formed from a negative relationship with skin and has since acted as a therapy for hapheophobia. The experience of producing a physical print is perhaps the most significant part of her process.

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No Dice

“Planes” is an exploration of movement within stasis, and variation within symmetry. At the core of the piece lies the harmonic language, which is limited to the level of gradual construction, mutation and deconstruction of one single chord. This allows the listener to focus on the larger symmetrical structures within the music, a chance to contemplate whole constructions without the distraction of individual notes or motifs. The piece relies heavily on sustained, carefully coloured tones, requiring absolute control from the players. As such, it is also something of an exercise in physical stamina - the slightest tremor can instantly affect the work’s tranquility. The work is intended to have a physically tranquilising effect on the listener, slowing the breathing and relaxing the mind.

Robin is a versatile young English conductor/composer with a reputation for dynamic performances across a wide range of contemporary and established repertoire.​​Known for his meticulous, reflective scores, Robin's compositions seek a synthesis between academic, formal interest and accessibility. He has had works premiered by world-class ensembles such as the Liverpool Philharmonic's 10/10 Ensemble and Quatuor Danel; One recent highlight was the successful premiere of his String Trio, "Planes".​Robin is based in Manchester, United Kingdom. He currently studies conducting with Mark Heron and composition with Dr. Laura Bowler.

Since 2014, No Dice Collective has produced a diverse range of concerts performing in concert halls, churches and bars, with an audience ranging from university lecturers to teenagers at their first classical concert. Every concert has a different focus while maintaining our commitment to the composers we perform. With our burgeoning outreach programme, we ensure our culture grows as the next generation of composers, performers and facilitators join us. Our previous concerts include commissioning five new pieces on the theme of 'modern spirituality' and producing a physical CD of it, a spoken word collaboration, and a nine week outreach programme a local sixth form teaching and workshopping composition.

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Sian Matthews

Collections of found objects and materials merge with repetitive processes and time based displays to manipulate and control the way in which the viewer looks at the everyday occurrences and routines we deem insignificant, and which fade into the background.

Sometimes something as simple as the act of taking a pill, which most of us do without a second thought, can actually have a profound and life altering effect on the lives of others. The aim of this body of work is to get the viewer to stop and look at a process they would normally overlook, and to re think their relationship to it through the eyes of someone else.

10 years The documentation of a decade’s use of asthma medication, Terbutaline and Budesonide. The repetitive process of making each individual inhaler cast mimicking the repetitive action of taking each dose of medication every day. 4 doses per day. 28 per week. 2 inhalers per month. 24 per year.

7 days Small section of a larger piece ‘7 days, 3 weeks, 1 month’Documenting the daily use and dose of immune suppressant medication Mycophenolate Mofitil over the course of 2 months. Commonly known for and used by transplant patients to stop the immune system rejecting a new organ it is also used in the treatment of immunodeficiency diseases such as atopic eczema.Each pill is framed with polyester resin and placed in a group which correlates to the amount taken in a certain time frame.4 per day. 28 per week. 112 per month.

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Kristy Campbell

Kristy is a Fine Art Masters graduate fixating on the use of visual language.

This practice aims to convey a visual language that demonstrates the fluid ambiguity of meaning, and of reading; through discourse, changing contexts, and in a physical communicative style.

Studying semiotics in her practice challenges linguistic traditions, methods of curation, and medium, but more intensively it confronts the connotation forced and attached to particular words, via experience and perspective.

Deconstruction and Deconstructivism theory fuel this. They intend to tilt, to fragment, and to stylize forming a dysfunctional and seemingly misguided structure, making way for an accessible alternative freedom within language.

Connotation is infinite. This is a long-term commitment to understanding misunderstandings. This body of work demonstrates a journey pursued in order to distill and open a supposed fixed and complex language.

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Megan Lowe

I am interested in the human body, natural life, death and spirituality. I seek to explore the repression of women throughout the past, looking at art history and historical events through a feminist perspective, adding elements of my own personal experience of being a female. An ongoing theme in my work is the female body and body-politics, the history of male dominance and female social identity.

Through sculpture and printmaking, I embody these themes. I mainly use the process of casting and make life sized, fragmented body parts. Casting allows me to capture an exact copy of the human body in that moment of time, creating my own fossil-like historical artefacts. The quote by artist Kiki Smith “I chose the body as a subject, not consciously, but because it is the one form that everybody has their own authentic experience with” is something I consider a lot. I think about both women’s collective and individual experiences, translating them into these body parts that are something we all share. The personal elements can be found in the process, where I use my own body to create the work, the process can sometimes be that of a ritual. I explore life and death, preservation and decay of both living and dead forms and use materials such as preserved insects, bones and hair. I am interested in displaying my work with a museum aesthetic, grouping pieces into collections or referencing the history of objects. I give my work strong decorative qualities to explore ideas of femininity, what this means and how it is viewed in contemporary art. I also do this to give the pieces the sense of being precious, like historical artefacts, as well as using hidden meaning and decorative qualities to mask more sinister meanings and realities.

‘Self’

This self portrait in the form of a life cast is an exploration of self outside self and a question of my identity. I see a cast as being like a fossil, preserving an exact imprint and memory of the subject. A self portrait in the form of a life cast has no room for manipulation and is one of the most honest ways of capturing a physical appearance, to recognise yourself outside self feels alien as you can only usually access this image of yourself in a reflection. It is a very stripped back version of myself, all that remains is the shapes of the face, the facial features and pattern on the skin. This self portrait is in great contrast to how women have been portrayed in art, in my practice I explore the loss of historical reality and identity women have suffered through how the artist has chosen to depict them. For me this self portrait raises questions of what my identity is, and if this is the most honest representation, it is such a different way of looking at myself it is difficult to relate to in terms of how I perceive my physical and spiritual identity. It questions the nature of the self.

‘Untitled’

Women’s association with nature through allegorical representations and associations seen throughout history has resulted in identity loss and a loss of historical reality. Through both mobilising and criticising the Pre-Raphaelite aesthetic I created this foot cast which acts as a plant pot. Exploring ideas of the human concept of nature and the hierarchy that has formed placing man above both woman and nature, this plant pot domesticates the two.

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Ines Florez

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Eliza Wimperis

I am unconnected, or rather, unhindered, unrestricted by any fixed point to the ground. I can move almost, if not quite, freely over the drawing plane, the paper is like the city. And I draw onto it, exploring it, navigate it, crossing and crisscrossing. This unconnectedness allows me to explore the space in a multi perspective fashion- I can see from any angle, turn and draw from any point. I do not decide these points and perspectives. The swing and turn of my body in the rigging alters my route across the paper. A deriveish course. The carbon in my hand is my only point of contact with a surface and the act of pressing into the paper moves me too. Reaching out to the very limits of my stretch, the end of the carbon is crushed and my weight is shifted, changing the pressure I exert on the carbon, as I press into the paper I am pushed away and swing out again towards the other edge, the carbon tracking my progress over the page. Leaving behind me a trace, the blackish smudging line. I seem to collect as much of the drawing material on myself as I do on the paper, my hands are black from the carbon and they too record something else. It leaves a softer mark when hand brushed paper, though there is often a more sudden movement captured here, when I slip or lose my balance from my suspended state over the paper. My hands come down and strike the paper, to catch myself, the blackish handprint that reveals a more direct interaction with the space I inhabit, highlighting the imperfections

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Ella Becket

Ella Becket is a London born artist whose works currently focus on figurative and abstract ideas. She uses a mixed media for her artworks varying from paintings, drawings and clothing as she loves the concept that what she creates can be enjoyed and experienced in more than one medium. With a lot of Ella’s paintings in particular, messages are incorporated surrounding present day events and beliefs. The ideas for Ella’s art mostly materialize to her however, she receives inspiration from artists such as Henri Matisse and William H Johnson, alongside modern-day artists. Themes explored are race and gender equality, the acceptance of the natural female form and relationships. Examining these so that they are viewed positively are important to Ella as she wants them to be viewed, shared and expressed in this light in everyday life. The choice of colour is an important part of Ella’s artworks also as she uses them to convey mood, heat, depth and key points to note in a single moment. This is implemented by the separation of single colours as well as a blend of a contrasting palette. Focusing on her line artworks, Ella determines how different line structures of faces can alter interpretations of expressions and emotions. Continual line and implementation of shape, were chosen to be used on portraits specifically due to the interest in its complex makeup, and the distinct contrasting similarities and differences of one face to the next.

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Freya Bolton

Pluviophile: a lover of rain; someone who finds joy and peace of mind during rainy days.

The Pluviophile project looks at the duality of the same experience, as felt in two different places. The rain in London - harsh drops ricocheting off concrete planes - stands in contrast to the immersive atmospheric rain of my home, in the woods in Preston.

The Pluviophile suit brings the atmospheric qualities of the experience of rain in Preston, to London - exploring ideas of escapism from the city. When worn, the suit gives the impression of rain-drenched, restrictive, sodden clothing, bringing the intense qualities of the rain I associate with home, to the more nondescript condition of rain in London.

The rain trickles down my good as the scans surrender to the icy flow of the droplets. Trapped around my neck, the beads of water send an invigorating shiver through my body.

As the deluge continues to pummel my hunched shoulders, the soft pile of my sweatshirt becomes dense - saturated with water. Slowly, I feel the soggy pools spread to my bare skin.

My sleeve becomes heavy with the weight of the permeated fabric. As I move, I feel my clothes gently sagging. And the mist in the air floods through.

I carry on, but the front thight of my jeans is stiff with the mass of the captive rain. Needles of ice stab at my muscle, and my jeans constrict around my numb legs. The rain overwhelms every pore, muscle and hair.

As the drizzle continues to soak me, I huddle into myself. My fingers delve into the warm, soft, dry pile under my arm. I feel safe, shrouded in the rain.

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Jessica Nash

Call me, Francis is a project which looks the photographer’s relationship with skin cancer. Developed during her twin brother’s second diagnosis, the photographer was moved to examine the relationship between her own body and mind. These self portraits show the anxiety and emotional strain experienced throughout this time.