STILTED exhibition
Christopher Patrick Olivares-Chandler
My work is conceptually driven with an emphasis on research. Once collated, I allow the information to directly inform the physical and temporal outcome of my work. I am ultimately searching for truth in what I do. Rather than imposing an idea onto something that already exists, I work with this material and allow it to reveal something that has always been there but may have been overlooked. What I enjoy most about working in this way is the excavation of truths that may otherwise be ignored. The performative potential in all things is what excites my passion for creating work. C.P.O.C.10
Enrique Philip
Whilst living on the east coast of the Scottish Highlands before returning to London aged six, the artist recalls an incident with his family crossing a busy road. A man inadvertently dropped a tube under his feet. The man, together with the artist’s father, yelled at him not to damage the tube further, they ignored the dangers of the road and grabbed the tube. Left shocked and bemused, the artist was later told that what the man had dropped was a painting.Drawing and painting are the foundations that stand now for a broader intuitive practice that encompasses sculpture, photography and site specific responses. The works manipulate and obscure our understanding of visual language and metaphor.Images are created, then manipulated to expose their resonance. Thematically, they explore the artists struggle between his Kafkaesque relationship with fear and his childlike optimism. Through a fiendish attention to detail and craft, coupled with an awareness of space he strives to imbue the work with a ‘pre-existence’, to prompt a feeling akin to a recollection.
Maria Bird
I produce visually complex, ‘compound’ artworks that resonate between drawing, collage and sculpture. They are constructed out of varied components, often disparate in terms of function and meaning, but which share intrinsic correlations in terms of texture, tone, form, colour, structure or concept. Through massing, patterning, or a process akin to building a nest, the final image becomes a visual essay on a chosen constituent theme. Consistently I am drawn to themes of texture and tone. The process combines forensic scrutiny of objects and distortion: in construction a disproportionate prominence is place on an elemental aspect of the material. This causes its individual identity to be compromised; it is engulfed by the whole.
In a recent piece built out of photographic directions from a mechanic manual the oily, metallic engine parts are subsumed in an undulating mass of contrasting tones, textures and shapes. The surface has a sort of perpetual movement, intrinsic, and vitalized by the eye as it is dragged through channels/pathways caused by visual parallels between the components. The eye wants to pause long enough to decode the identity of the individual element, something that can be achieved only with a re-enactment of the kind of forensic scrutiny that was the catalyst for the work in the first place. I force the viewer to re-enact my process.
Though demanding of the audience and in many ways controlling, I feel that my artworks reward the viewer in terms of the overall aesthetic quality, and in the surprise of the decoded element.
In a recent piece built out of photographic directions from a mechanic manual the oily, metallic engine parts are subsumed in an undulating mass of contrasting tones, textures and shapes. The surface has a sort of perpetual movement, intrinsic, and vitalized by the eye as it is dragged through channels/pathways caused by visual parallels between the components. The eye wants to pause long enough to decode the identity of the individual element, something that can be achieved only with a re-enactment of the kind of forensic scrutiny that was the catalyst for the work in the first place. I force the viewer to re-enact my process.
Though demanding of the audience and in many ways controlling, I feel that my artworks reward the viewer in terms of the overall aesthetic quality, and in the surprise of the decoded element.
Lucy Baker
My artwork is me. All work is autobiographical, reflecting my moods, my thoughts and my interests. At the moment I am concerned with the sexual representation of women and what we perceive to be 'beautiful'. To me, beauty is a myth and my work is about trying to embody it.
[email protected]
www.lucybaker.eu
[email protected]
www.lucybaker.eu
Haze Burke
I am inspired and interested by the things i see around me in my environment from architecture, light, people, scale the body and my interaction with them Through photography, drawing and video. I document experiments and observations in the aim of creating and informing future works and furthering my practice. My main practice is in painting and drawing but i enjoy the use of different processes and materials in gaining inspiration. I enjoy exploring the lines between reality and fantasy and the abstract and figurative. In some works the documentation becomes more important then the final piece it's self as the process of creating becomes more performative and expressionistic. I am concentrating on drawing, architecture and scale at the moment in present and future works in the hope of improving my drawing skills and working on my practice as an Artist. I am interested in exploring different ways of drawing using different materials and processes from print, wirer drawing, collage and materials such as bleach, charcoal, paint, ink to inform and create new works
Mia Pfeifer
Nine years ago, I left one cold city to start a new life in another as an art student. Travels, relationships and commitment issues got in the way until I finally decided to settle down in London to engage myself with my grand dream of becoming an artist. Today the notion of becoming an artist as a dream is transformed into the reality of the student who questions the idea of art, and fights everyday with her own creativity. It is inevitable to move away from the preconceived idea of the foreigner taking into account linguistic barriers, and physical characteristics, but somehow I see myself more and more distant from that caricature. My connection to the world I live in is determine by memories, personal relationships, moral values, and aesthetic parameters. I do not belong to an exact location marked in a map, but to a place where my nostalgia leads me to, deep inside my mind. That place is a strong source of inspiration for my art practice. Is a place with a little corner where I piled day by day every experience, social concerns, every single emotion. All this inspiration tend to be materialised into figurative forms
Patrícia Venâncio Oliveira
My interest in B&W photography and film led me to research around the history of these media, where early optical devices such as the zoetrope and the camera obscura, stimulated my curiosity for a better understanding of the photography process.Inspired particularly by Edward Muyridge and his study of movement, and early experimental surrealist films, which amongst others play with the concept of film being predominantly an optical illusion. My intention is to experiment with photographing different ways of representing reality.Through the pinhole camera device I am investigating concepts such as time and reality, where long exposures required for this medium can create an image that embodies more than a moment stopped in time and depict reality in a peculiar way. The understanding of the process and the hidden details and possible connections between images are characteristics that I am currently exploring.My photographs are taken with several pinhole cameras made in different scale and forms, where elements of distortion and obscurity can be found. I believe the interaction between the light and time of exposure is more evident with this specific technique, giving the pictures a peculiar texture.
Velvet Zoe Ramos
My practice is to be in the process integrity engaging with themes such as 'memory', 'oblivion', and 'imagination' to layer a narrative with these inextricable notions of how we experience life.
Fay Bamblett
The temporary and evolving nature of these works releases them from the confinement of one medium. They are represented as large-scale sculptures, site-specific installations and invisibly suspended structures. My most recent piece, ‘White Out’, presents a malleable piece of art that can be molded within many environments. It acts as a canopy, suspended layers that are misleadingly seen as protective and sheltering.
Works that have been enthusing my creative practice include Chris Drury’s natural shelters, the Barbican’s 2009 ‘Radical Nature’ exhibition catalogue, and Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s ‘The Gates’ installation in Central Park. I aim to continue following my enthusiasms that will reflect my passions for the environment, so that my work develops to become rich and profound. I believe that environmental art, i.e. art that deals with ecological issues, can educate its viewers of the current issues that are affecting our world, by enthralling them with inventive subject.
This is what I intend to explore in the body of work I produce.
Helen Rance
My practice concentrates on present day contemporary problems in the social situations, institutions, arts and achievements of the social group I find myself caught up and engrossed in at any moment in time.Issues that I focus my attention on include the idea of a deep romantic or sexual attachment to someone, idolizations, rejection, infatuation; bodily abuse - that is narcotic and substance abuse, eating disorders and the sad loss of life. I bring in to light how issues such as these affect, alter, influence and transform us all as well as myself, and allow these issues to inform and inspire my work.I use materials that capture the moment and emphasize my response to certain situations that I am addressing. The use of needlework is a reflection of my own personal history, and the use of thread allows me to expose the type of emotions I feel towards the subject and manipulate the chosen image to indicate my personal views. My work allows me a voice of thought that I have learnt to communicate to people with out words.
Lauren Bibi Drescher
I collect, reassemble, reinvent, recycle. My work traverses time and memory. I am interested in symbols which evoke the unconscious . Objects and images are often palimpsest. Found materials which have been cast away are frequently the catalyst for new works. In addition to installation work I am interested in multiples, reproduction, dissemination, using various forms as vessels. My work explores our relationship to nature as well as the complexity of human relationships in order to re-examine our collective symbiosis.
I collect, reassemble, reinvent, recycle. My work traverses time and memory. I am interested in symbols which evoke the unconscious . Objects and images are often palimpsest. Found materials which have been cast away are frequently the catalyst for new works. In addition to installation work I am interested in multiples, reproduction, dissemination, using various forms as vessels. My work explores our relationship to nature as well as the complexity of human relationships in order to re-examine our collective symbiosis.
Sophie Bebb
Through my work I aim to explore the concept behind the distribution and consumption of art. I involve myself with mass distribution of pieces of art and imagery, making the art scene accessible to a range of viewers. The content of these often illustrate themselves in an analytical take of the audiences views towards the art world, with an evolving dialogue between text and image.This can manifest itself in a variety of visual arts. In particular, I have recently concerned myself with the idea of an artist's publications, such as small books and magazines.
Giulia Lazzaro
Drawing from architecture, literature and film, I construct miniature mise en scene as a direct response to the places and buildings I encounter. Subsequently the pieces I produce involve the perceived aspect of a site or place in relation to other visual stimuli we come in contact with everyday.
With an emphasis on craft and a devout methodology, I first construct these sites in a diminutive scale, pertaining to my questionable security in the real world, then embellish and alternate so they become foreign and fantastical.
The manifestation of this idea is a photograph which to the attentive viewer is wholly rewarding, and to the passive viewer is simply a nice snap. They do not have the polished and sharp ostentatious aesthetic of fashion photography and the colour reproduction is often subdued and seedy; as though there may have been a fine earthy haze settling just as the photograph is taken. [email protected]
With an emphasis on craft and a devout methodology, I first construct these sites in a diminutive scale, pertaining to my questionable security in the real world, then embellish and alternate so they become foreign and fantastical.
The manifestation of this idea is a photograph which to the attentive viewer is wholly rewarding, and to the passive viewer is simply a nice snap. They do not have the polished and sharp ostentatious aesthetic of fashion photography and the colour reproduction is often subdued and seedy; as though there may have been a fine earthy haze settling just as the photograph is taken. [email protected]
Oliver Cronk
A consideration of gendered stereotypes and roles leads me to investigate a space of variance and interchangeability between established dichotomies such as the masculine and feminine, violence and delicacy and seduction and repulsion. As these investigations take visual form I look to explore the interchangeable nature of received behavioural paradigms and the reality of alternatives.Recently I have been experimenting with textiles and stitched images, such as needlepoint. While the aesthetic values and conceptual potential of these forms are important to me, I am also driven by the craft-based processes which they require and enjoy the manually intensive nature of the work itself.My most recent pieces 'Bruises' are abstracted details of bloodied sportsmen, such as cage-fighters and boxers. By rendering these details in needlepoint I seek to open a space of discussion around activities characterised not only by gender, but also by the relationship between aggression and delicacy.
Luka Vardiashvili
...a spirit too close to me. And my eyes begin to water, your face is like a clown my dear but why is it so pale. Un-sure to my own complexion and I make that cocky smile, looking in the mirror again bruv.That eastern blue running through me like the Danubelooking at the Rioni smiling at the dead sailing in to the wilderness across me like pissing on the wind carrying accordions through the veins of oak trees and dead London birches, which would be unshaken even in an apocalypse. When I pee its like watering my mind with music and reaching the dead spaces in my imagination, peeing when you’re drunk is the best. And then my fingers were cold again. (Chemo mama mitkra) My dad said , ‘Put you’re fucking gloves on boy…’, He was a bit happy...
Carl Lund
The intimate aspect of drawing and writing intrigues me in the same way I appreciate the nature of secrets and lies.
The subtlety of thoughts not uttered never stops teasing me and the only thing I enjoy even more than keeping ideas privately, is to share them with others once I think that they have reached a substantial level of brilliance.
I believe that it was inevitable I should end up telling stories. I find the concept of grown-ups passing on the same sense of amazement that they themselves experienced as children, one of the most beautiful things in life. I recognize this as the very essence of storytelling.
Teresa Shum
Primarily working with the media of paint and printmaking, I draw inspiration from the environ and the people around me.My work addresses issues of gender roles, contemporary culture and the human condition. I like to look for the extraordinary in the commonplace, re-interpret the seemingly obvious, and bring to light emotions and stories that are unnoticed or neglected.By creating such work for the viewer’s contemplation or appreciation, I am also providing myself a framework to re-examine my own existence in relation to the spaces, people and ideas around me.
Rma Sanchez-Bell
Hugues
Jenea Okuefuna
My influences first and foremost are everything I see, hear, and experience. I never really set out to make art only about one subject or use one particular medium, but fell in love with black and white and digital photography, back before I had even considered a career in art. It was my return from my world trip in 2005, having taken an extensive amount of photographs of people and places, did I know for sure. I still currently work with a mixed variety of mediums, choosing them in relation to the idea.
Over time I started noticing a pattern emerge in my work. My work tends to use quantity, working in multiples, repetitiveness and the occasional use of art writing to suggest its point. My work is light hearted but always aesthetically pleasing, even if, only to my eye. A lot of my work comments on human nature and is sometimes humorous
I love working with metal printing plates. The contrast between the harshness of the metal plates, and the potential to produce the most feminine and delicate prints using photo etching is exciting. I often like letting the unpredictable nature of the printing process and mark making change my final outcome. Saying that my overall outcome is habitually pre meditated. Sometimes I work deliberately and consciously, but never overlooking and appreciating the power a happy accident can have on my finished product.
I intend to continue to make work that tries to challenge peoples perspective on taboo subjects, or details of everyday life lost by the distractions of everyday life.
Over time I started noticing a pattern emerge in my work. My work tends to use quantity, working in multiples, repetitiveness and the occasional use of art writing to suggest its point. My work is light hearted but always aesthetically pleasing, even if, only to my eye. A lot of my work comments on human nature and is sometimes humorous
I love working with metal printing plates. The contrast between the harshness of the metal plates, and the potential to produce the most feminine and delicate prints using photo etching is exciting. I often like letting the unpredictable nature of the printing process and mark making change my final outcome. Saying that my overall outcome is habitually pre meditated. Sometimes I work deliberately and consciously, but never overlooking and appreciating the power a happy accident can have on my finished product.
I intend to continue to make work that tries to challenge peoples perspective on taboo subjects, or details of everyday life lost by the distractions of everyday life.
