| Project title: | you are here |
| Location: | Colonnade House, Worthing, UK |
| Date(s): | 4 – 9 June 2024 |
Artist Statement
I am currently exploring human consciousness and how we experience ourselves and our surroundings. I have a meditative painting practice where I study photos of the streets and buildings close to where I live. I also use photography to express ideas inspired by what I see and feel. I am developing an interest in performative art inspired by Japanese artist Michihiro Shimabuku and his project in 2000 called Cucumber Journey. I plan to experiment with work which is transient in nature.
Contextual Statement
How can an art practice provoke dialogues which stem from the artist’s own experiences?
The anchor of my project was a walking practice in Fontwell Close, Rustington, West Sussex. Through walking, photography, and slow painting, I explored the theme of place and displacement. An exhibition was curated called you are here, which consisted of two paintings and eight dandelion plants presented in a white cube space. One of the paintings was also displayed in a local café. The dandelions were gifted to various artists.
My project was designed so that the different elements of practice could run simultaneously. A feedback loop was created enabling ideas to develop between them. In essence I was investigating perception through the comparison of direct engagement (of place), photographic representation (of place) and painted representation (of place). Repetition was a key element in this project allowing the time and space for observations to be made. Over 350 walks took place, and 295 photos and videos were shot. It was important for me to allow the project to evolve organically so that it stayed relevant to my current interests. Incorporating the propagation of dandelions into this project was an unexpected delight.
My arts-based research is driven by the exploration of self. The artistic outcomes are an expression of and interrogation into my own consciousness. Art educator Elliot W. Eisner says that “Forms of representation are means through which the contents of consciousness are made public” (2002:8). This is important because by making our consciousness public we can connect to others.
This project has been particularly influenced by the idea of displacement because of my own first-hand experiences of a no-fault eviction and having to relocate due to the gentrification of my hometown. I have been exploring how a space turns into a place which turns into a home. In their book Art Works: Place, artists Tacita Dean and Jeremy Millar say
“Many of us would agree with geographer Yi-Fu Tuan’s remark in 1976 that ‘When space feels thoroughly familiar to us, it has become place’. Place is something known to us, somewhere that belongs to us in a spiritual, if not possessive, sense and to which we too belong” (2005:14).
This is important because the belonging to a place that Dean and Millar describe can provide the body with the perception of safety which is important for our health.
A core objective of my art practice is to develop a resistance to mainstream culture which I find toxic. I have been influenced by the artist Tricia Hersey who promotes rest to resist systems which do not serve us. “Go slow and realize you have been brainwashed by a system that attaches your inherent worth to how much you can labor and produce” (Hersey 2022:149). Through a slow painting practice, I resist commercial production as being my function. Instead, I value a creative life which feels meaningful to me.
I am developing a network of trusted associates with whom I can work. These include Duncan at DNA photo imaging, Joe, Paula and Richard at Colonnade House, Nora Young, and many others.
Project Documentation
This is my final painting of Worthing, where I am responding to the impending threat of homelessness.
This is my first painting of Rustington where I am trying to process my displacement.
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