And so, my work heavily involves crochet and other textiles (processes which have often been deemed a ‘feminine’ craft) to create sculptural objects of a figurative nature, with a semi-satirical spin to them.

 

By using my techniques of choice, crochet and knitting mainly, the softness of the fabric often contradicts the functionality of objects as well, i.e., making large, heavy, and almost brutal items softer and benign. I have also further explored this relationship in the opposite direction, by weaving harder, more heavy-duty materials into blankets and tapestries.

 

The investigation of these contradictions in physical properties and gender connotations result in my amusing, tactile, weird, and exaggerated artworks. I hope you enjoy.

The material and unpredictable qualities held within oil paint hold great value to myself, absorbed by the differing ways the medium can be applied and perform against the canvas has long been a fascination of mine. The mental chatter of the outside world is put to one side when faced with the surface, a meditative state where the possibilities of paint become the entire focus. 

Thinly applied washes of oil sweep across the canvas to conceive a looming mist of memory that bleeds and branches off into the surface. The result constructed is an environment rich in colour somewhere between pipe dream and actuality. The paintings are formed from both emotion and feeling as much as they are a past truth.  I find that through the act of painting, memories can begin to blur and distort, becoming sometimes altered from the original where a new situation is born through the pursuit of paint.

As my practice developed, the theme of my prints shifted to darker social situations illuminated by coloured strobe lights. This way, I could not only recreate the moment through photorealistic CMYK stencils, as I had done earlier in my printing practice, but also encapsulate the moment through the screen-printing inks that I use. Using UV inks that glow under blacklight, I can recreate the intensity of the strobe lights in the prints in the way they appeared in person. 

With an affinity to the phrase Abstract Engineering, which I believe can be used to most accurately describe my practice, I aim to investigate abstraction and its multiple uses as a means of problem solving, more specifcally how there can be a balance of refinement and functionality alongside the obscured and gesturally expressive.

I find inspiration, narritavely speaking, from external factors, such as contemporary discourse, as well as internal thoughts, feelings and experiences and use my practice and the works generated within it not only as a means of problem solving but additionally as a means of personal processing.

Having evolved my practice into three dimensional works concerning structural installation and small scale sculpture, I am interested in the inter-relational process within my practice; my current line of enquiry is concerned with the interference of surface, apparatus and materiality. Using materials which primarily have an association to crafts that fall outside of a generic artistic context, these works highlight not only my deliberate and intentional interference with the given work, but additionally highlight the associated narrative of the present work in ways such as, removal, trace, impression and masking in all forms.

Spontaneity rules my practice, allowing  emotions and themes to grow so all consuming that I have no choice but to express myself, bringing the concept from idea to fruition within days. However, Carou-sell Yourself was quite the opposite, having this idea written down for almost 5 years now I felt it important to give myself the time to both grow and refine my skills to create this piece.

Carou-sell Yourself exists as an oxymoron, partnering nostalgia with vulgarity to represent the uneasiness of the male gaze. The women captured through golden silhouette pole dance within the carousel structure; representing the simultaneous pressure for woman to be virile sex symbols for their nuclear husbands partnered with the shame they are expected to feel for doing so. There is a fine line between a celebration of life and a freak show; to which the audience is left delicately tight roping.

With her current work, and future works Amy looks to create complex layered stories. With her artwork remaining as a contender on how she shares her thoughts and ideas without having an unrealistic view of it changing the ideas of the witch in the public’s eye. Often looking down more contemporary roots on how to create work without overworking the piece, and ironic twist from its more historical ideas, provoking the new unexplored territories of the occult. 

 ―Freud, Sigmund

 

In Marcel Proust’s “In search of Lost Time”, he depicts a scenario where the scent of a madeleine and tea with his grandma evoked ‘involuntary memory’. I quickly realised whilst reading that I had always painted the motif of European decorative tiles in my artwork due to the nostalgia they gave me of my upbringings in Spain. These tiles became my madeleine and tea. Experimenting with screen-printing within my paintings allows for machine like production and a form of repetition that parallels the layers of memory. I explore how memory develops to mean something different as we age. Reusing old materials from childhood (such as photography or even childhood drawings and short written stories) created a form of perceiving how wonderful lack of concern and innocence of youth is. Blissful ignorance that doesn’t last, as one ages their relationship with memory will change and experiences in the wider world cause increased fear. 

The contents of my paintings are always figurative and often self-portraiture, creating a direct link to the self. I wanted to combine methods of artwork that felt childlike with traditional painting through their materiality, so the plastic mosaic tiles from Reading’s local arts and crafts shops felt perfect as an addition to a traditional portrait. The use of negative space within self-portraiture to explore the notions of false memory, or constructed memory. 

www.morganabanana.com

In uncovering, cloning, and reconfiguring these by-product artefacts of technocratic power systems, I can demonstrate these power imbalances and struggles. Through specific media - installation, sculpture and sound - anti-homeless architecture - I re-make, assemble and construct surrogate urban architectural elements and furnishings. An urban vocabulary that is used through my work if you will.

I aim to create a fissure in the normative functionality of these objects and demonstrate the absurdity, gratuitousness and, often harmful nature that  systems of power all frequently possess. 

Three works in this series are inspired by 《The crowd, A study of popular mind》 by Gustave lebon, which states that whether an individual or a group is in a state of being suggested, their thinking function will be completely lost.

The black sheep effect is also what I want to express in my painting. When we faced with great desire and social pressure, we usually transfer the unjustifiable problems to the relatively weak people, thus forming the "black sheep effect" in which a group of good people bully a good person. This is the malice that all identities and ostracism in the society have to face.

The malice in human nature is the manifestation of the conflict and contradiction in the social system. Just as contemporary poetry and literature is a contradiction between the romanticism of words and the ugliness of reality. The main idea of my paintings is :" In the crow's world, the swan is the original sin." It constantly implies that the beautiful cloak covers the malice of human nature, and exposes the real and secret life style and the essential problems reflected in the spiritual level under the beautiful skin of human beings.

 

The purpose of the works is to mainly raise awareness of a healthy, balanced, physical and mental lifestyle. The illustration of donuts found in the series, is my chosen subject matter alongside of Marylin, that highlights my intention to reflect on feelings of lust and desire, the different mental battles and hard work upon resisting and not giving up in one’s journey. Good health and lifestyle is a topic I am deeply invested in my life and with this artistic approach I hope people will question their daily health habits and how they’ve been impacting their lives unconsciously. Why not start by being more conscious with our choices in food and lifestyle since these choices will automatically have a positive impact in our mindset and growth?

 

Experimenting with clay and making rice paintings have allowed me to focus on processes of labour. Through using materials with malleable properties such as clay and rice, both with a capacity to change consistency, I have produced fragile ephemeral sculptures such as my rice painting, created by hand sticking individual grains of rice, or creating misshapen vases inspired by characteristics of my grandma. I explore the ways in which vessels can hold emotional value, based on connections with the people around me in a playful way.

 

Displays of my work have revolved around how to house important things, drawing from the concept of a cabinet of curiosities to display a personal collection, and now evolving into building a sacred space which is meaningful to the individual and also welcome to others as a means of exhibiting my collection of sculptures.

My portraits are not sourced from traditional sittings, but from collages of transient happenings that would have been forgotten by the subjects. I am drawn to visually exposing a sensation of freedom in scenes reflective of fleeting impermanence. Young adulthood is full of these as a time of possibilities and newfound independence. A tension is observable in my work between the assumed invisibility of these moments and my, as well as the viewers, surveillance of them as an artwork. 

The dramatic application of colour and light in my compositions illustrate this imbalance between privacy and exhibition, as well as creating an emotive ambience suggestive of an unknown, mysterious narrative.