I have been experimenting with ways to create an image, looking at identity and portraiture. Textiles has been something I have had a particular interest in for a long time. I started creating a series of portraits in the medium of stitch. Using a medium weight calico and black stitch, I created simple line drawing portraits, the subjects are not people I know and they often feature older people. The calico adds to the almost sketchy feel as it is an off white colour giving a less than pristine feel. The stitch crumples the material giving more character to the portrait. The eyes are drawn upward through the simple portrait focusing on the wild hair at the top of the piece. The informal pose has a slight sketchy feel which gives a sense of the character of the woman and the loose threads give and an unkempt appearance, she looks like she’s been outside exposed to the elements. The portrait is not whole and the chin is unfinished, the woman is not given a back story the viewer knows can draw nothing from this adding to the question of the woman’s identity.
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When I look in the mirror, the woman I see Is not the girl that lives within me. The person I know is younger than that. She's trim and attractive and not all that fat. The person I see is mature and alive Ambitious, flamboyant and has lots of drive. She'd love to go dancing, be able to sing wants this not to be winter but rather her spring The lines on the face in the mirror I see are just on the glass and not part of me. The silver that shines in that lady's hair on the person I know they just aren't there. I'd give my eye teeth for the world to see the pretty woman that lives inside me Gloria Hemingway-Johnson The work I produced for the exhibition was biased on a poem by Gloria Hemingway-Johnson. Age and beauty is something that has featured strongly throughout my work. The poem was something I felt was prominent in my work and really touched me. I wanted to portray the fear of getting older but also the feeling of being younger underneath. The mask of age that becomes your outward appearance concealing the youth and beauty underneath.
I produced eight paintings all on mirrors, showing eight older faces. By producing them out of make-up and paint I wanted to convey the idea that they are beautiful in what they are made out of although their aged faces aren't our typical idea of beauty. I tried different ways of hanging the work but settled on hanging them in a line at head height. I wanted people to look into the mirrors and see themselves as the old face. I wanted them to look as if it was their everyday mirrors and they saw their everyday face. The exhibition went really well. People seemed to enjoy and appreciate the work. I got various good feedbacks from a range of people. Overall I was proud and happy by the response we received. I have been experimenting with portraiture in various forms and looking at different ways of 'drawing'. this is one of the experiments I attempted, by calving a face into a piece of fruit I wanted to document the affect of age on the portrait. I initially found it difficult to achieve the level of detail I wanted as the apple would crumble and the face would become distorted. however after to perseverance I was happy with the out come. I documented the process by taking photographs at regular intervals. I began to create the face while the fruit was fresh and ripe, the colours were bright and crisp. as time went on, like human faces, the fruit became wrinkled and lines appeared that weren't there before. the fruit was no longer appealing and it had lost its beauty, linking back to my practice as something that was once beautiful had become old and fragile. the process had blurred the face so its young sharp features had become soft and lost within the old flesh. it seems that everything has a sell by date. This is a series of work surrounding the theme of identity, looking at age and how it affect us. Ageing is a human reality we all must face, it is an inescapable reality. Each of the eyes I kept similar to portray the idea of youth beneath the older face. Each portrait stares into the camera, some serious and some joyful. At first glance the photograph reaches out to the viewer displaying the youth and vitality of the image, the colours of the older face are muted somehow and seem to sink into the background. These are images of my family and I on one half of the image shows us how were, on the other shows us to be what we once were or what we may become. This transition through life is inevitable however does the person’s identity change too? Is our identity as fluid as our appearance? There are many things to think about when preparing for our exhibition; themes, the venue, advertising to the public, the physicality of hanging the work, opening nights and health and safety.
Presenting our work in this way gives us an opportunity to open our work up to an audience leaving it open to public judgement. By advertising well we can encourage members of the public to come and see the work. We all have very different practices we need to incorporate everyone's work from painting and drawing to sculpture and collage and everything in between. The name of the show was very important to us as we wanted to create a link between everyone’s work to tie the show together. The word ‘Compilation’ helped to celebrate that we were all different and that we had come together for this exhibition. for both the name and the logo we decided to focus on the space rather than the work for all the publication. the beams in the gage gallery had a strong presence in the room and seemed an obvious choice to base our advertising on rather than focus on one persons practice or work. as the location of the gallery was out of the main town we all agreed publicising the event was vital to gain any public audience. by advertising using posters, leaflets and social media we hoped to gain interest. we spread the posters throughout Sheffield, posters put up in our studios and leaflets handed out in café's, shops and bars. the opening night was important to us as we wanted it to be a night to celebrate our hard work and hopefully the success of the exhibition. We wanted to create a night of entertainment and festivity. we decided to provide food and drinks to everyone who attended. we all wanted to create a relaxed atmosphere where people could enjoy the work. by having live subtle acoustic music and soft fairy lights down the length of the room we thought this would be achievable. we managed to achieve sponsorship from a local business the Bakewell tart shop. The company helped cover the cost of printing posters and leaflets and also provided Bakewell tarts for our opening night. having sponsorship gave our exhibition a professional appearance, and by putting a poster up in their shop we also gained more advertising. I love immersing myself in the creative process. I feel art can open up people’s minds to new ideas, providing the chance to create something beautiful that affects everyday people, to make them look around and inspire them.
My work has spanned over various themes, media and techniques. For a long time I have been interested in mixed media artwork. I have worked with textiles, paint, drawing, photography and metals. After a recent workshop on aluminium casting I became immersed in the casting process and I’ve thoroughly loved the process of the sandcasting and the final outcome. Something that really interests me is the idea of the everyday person. As with many people I love people watching, it intrigues me to what the person is doing, how they came to be here and what their story is how they came to be at that exact spot in that exact moment in time. Growing up photography has always been something that intrigued and fascinated me. I love experimenting with a camera and trying out different shots. Living in the peak district gives me endless breathtakingly beautiful landscapes to focus on. There is nothing I love more than heading out on a long walk with the dogs armed with a camera.
Before starting university I had had no formal photography training and knew very little about the technical aspect. One of the reasons Sheffield Hallam became my first choice was the vast resources and equipment in the photography department. I remember my excitement at discovering the camera library, realising you can book out cameras like a book fuelled my enthusiasm and yearning to know more. Obviously the first block of workshops we were able to book onto I chose the photography workshop. I loved learning about film cameras, the dark room, developing, Photoshop and digital cameras. I was sad when the workshops came to an end but I felt I had more confidence to book out cameras and experiment with my new found skills. sadly I haven't had much time since the first workshops to get experimenting and go out and take photos, but thankfully the latest set of workshops gave me my chance to refresh and to embrace photography again. In my casting session this week i decided to create a miniature man to go alongside my current project, with my casting teachers suggestion I created the model of a man out of plasticine from a drawing I had made previously, and using a silicone based sand casting technique we created the cast. hopefully it will work and I look forward to seeing the finished result when the aluminium is poured on Friday.
Living in such a beautiful place in the world is something we often take for granted, but every now and again something comes along which opens your eyes to the fascinating history and beauty of the Derbyshire dales. Derwent Pulse is one of those things. it claims to be Derbyshire's longest ever artwork. by using up to one thousand lights, illuminating the ancient pulse of the river Derwent the first ever factories and the history behind the countryside. the lights twist and turn through Derbyshire's beautiful valleys and weave the past, present and future of Derbyshire, its landscape and people. standing on a cold October night in front of the backdrop of the majestic Chatsworth house the floating lights drifting down the river and the excitement of the young children decorated in bright lights marching a path along the riverside was a magical experience. the river was brought to life for a short while as drums were played and children marvelled at the bright ever changing lights. Here are a few long exposure shots I took: |
AuthorHannah Watson is currently a student at Sheffield Hallam University, studying towards a BA in Creative Art Practice Archives
May 2015
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