| Project title: | Super Fun Tyre |
| Location: | Ships & Castles, Falmouth, UK |
| Date(s): | 18-22 July 2024 |
Super Fun Tyre – an installation of sculptural works occupying the drained swimming pool space in the former Ships & Castles leisure centre in Falmouth. Presented within the exhibition are a combination of works placed throughout the space that explore childhood experiences of seaside holidays, and the objects, locations, journeys and landscapes key to these. The works present an opportunity for contemplating loss, nostalgia and these landscapes of fun.
The project was presented in collaboration with Auction House, Redruth
Artist Statement
My practice is predominantly sculptural based, often utilising elements of installation and performative methodologies. The work explores the potential of materials to further narrative contexts, utilising the imbued meaning in objects as a part of the process. The making and journey of the works form an important part of the practice. Personal experience and histories, with elements of common, shared experience, form the catalyst of the ideas.
I make work that celebrates, creating visually rich and engaging environments while providing threads for the audience to unravel and explore. There is often an element of playfulness to the works through word-play, in-jokes, bright colours or juxtapositions, it may seem to not take itself too seriously but this provides an accessibility to the work to explore the narratives at play.
Current themes focus on an exploration and reflection on childhood experiences of seaside holidays and the key objects, locations, journeys and landscapes and the resonance of these on my experience of family and relationships. These themes provide a platform for contemplating loss, nostalgia and landscapes of fun, the places and ways in which we escape and seek joy away from the everyday, while celebrating the excitement and uniqueness of these places.
Contextual Statement
This project sits within a cultural climate where there is a decline of the recreational ‘fun’ spaces once deemed vital; “England has lost almost 400 swimming pools since 2010 with parts of the country that have the greatest health needs (often coastal communities) losing out the most.” (Goodier, 2023), with these pleasure pools amongst other leisure and cultural spaces closing down at an alarming rate, (28% of Amusement arcades closed between 2009 and 2011, (Osborne, 2013)). Elmgreen and Dragset discuss their abandoned pool installation “The Whitechapel Pool”, 2018 as: “a sentimental image of painful transitions in general – the shift of values.” (Whitechapel Gallery, 2018)
This is key to the themes of this project, the pool space, arcades and leisure activities represented reflect on an exploration of life’s transitions, from childhood to adulthood, personal reflections on the decline and loss of my father through illness and a wider shift in political values away from the idealisms of social-well being, community and leisure, that Ships and Castles was founded on (Mitchley (2020) to a climate of austerity and socio-economic decline. “For the history of every individual, of every social order, indeed of the whole world, does not describe an ever-widening, more and more wonderful arc, but rather follows a course which, once the meridian is reached, leads without fail down into the dark” (Sebald, 1999).
My methodology is predominantly based around nostalgic explorations of object, through sculpture, incorporating performative and time based elements. The exploration of materials and imbued meaning of objects further narrative contexts while the physical making of the works form an important part of the practice. Personal experience and histories, with elements of common, shared experience, form the catalyst of the ideas.
The exhibition creates an experience, a collection of works for the viewer to navigate that as Heidegger (1993) suggests, “set up a world”, that captures an essence of these places, a sensory and experiential encounter that on the surface seems a simple celebration but unfolds my own experiences and transitions “the artist is the origin of the work. the work is the origin of the artist” (Heidegger, 1993). Contemplating “what the relics of our culture will look like” (Fisher, 2014) the exhibition presents my own ghosts as “a set of eerie traces” (Fisher, 2014) putting the viewer in the role of cultural archaeologist, uncovering narratives while piecing together elements of their own experiences.
Documentation
Further information