Artist Statement 2013

I understand art as a set of on-going questions that can be learnt and understood, but never answered definitively. I have found practices of sociology and semiotics are the best ways of understanding how to engage with the world on a creative level. Les Back suggests having, ‘ the humility and honesty to reflect on our own assumptions and prejudgments’. This, combined with a quote from Barthes, ‘to live the full contradiction of my time, which may well make sarcasm the condition of truth’, are good ideological tools and a pretty accurate basis for how I currently approach my art making. Aesthetically, I prefer to fall blindly into the future, grabbing hold of my immediate surroundings than to spend too much time looking backwards for familiarisation in the past.

Unit 7: 200 Word Statement

Prelude - Due to the last minute non-use of the foyer, I was forced to have a re-think about how I would display my work. It actually pushed me to do what I have always wanted, to create an installation based piece of work that involved an element of interaction, questioning the typical use of a white cube space. My research journal will back up my thoughts on the individual components of the work that, before this change in viewing situation, I would have been prepared to show individually, namely the wetherspoons place mat print and the golden chicken. However, I believe that the environment I have created for, 'Beautiful Inside My Stomach Forever (Chicken Party)', allows my investigation into these suggested cultural artefacts to be seen while the works sit side by side. There is a clear interest in consumerism, pin pointed by the works I have included as they sit around what I believe to be less direct pieces of information relating to my practice and also my personal life as a student/artist, backed up further by the inclusion of props from previous works. This is very much multi-layered work, not to be viewed as a whole, involving fabricated artefacts, appropriated objects and social interaction which exists beyond the work's static form via documentation.

200 Word Statement - Struggling with reasoning for showing a body of works that felt unconnected or would confuse each other and also the personal drive to include an element of community atmosphere and interaction, thus challenging the perception and use of a 'white cube' environment, I have come to the conclusion of showing an edited version of my studio space. The element of the incomplete, that inevitably comes with being 2/3 of the way through a degree, is the same element that will always be present in my work, social commentary or cultural investigation of the current cannot be finalised. This is an insight into my on-going stream of conciousness. The material or physical section, the edited version of my studio, becomes static but is incorporated into a social environment by inclusion of a bar and free fried chicken in the surrounding area. Elements of humour can be found not just in individual objects but in a general celebration of cultural paraphernalia. Direct theoretical references such as specific texts have been removed, where the remnants of previous works have been included, whose states convey their current use as I arrive at this time in my artistic journey.

Artist Statement (Winter Term 2012)

I am a London based artist working with moving image. I use appropriated imagery from television and the internet or mimic this style in my own filming. Although serious issues arise in my work, I do not in any way see myself as an activist. My artistic practice is a voice for my inner-monologue and my personal perception of society. Humour is key to my practice and I seek it through ironic and kitsch aspects of culture.