New Work - The Fish in my head project,

April - May 2020

Performance is a key process of my artwork, testing and figuring out. It allows for exploration and experimentation, where new themes begin to form.

The human relationship between the body, objects and nature are important elements to my work. Currently, tones of frustration, an escapism, feeling trapped in one’s mindset. Ideas are swimming circles in the brain, just as a fish swims round it’s bowl, one peers into it’s world, but do not always understand it.

Understanding lost or gained through gestures or expressions. Hands as forms, sculptural, non gendered, individual, yet universal. They are known, perhaps not always understood due to they versatility. Hands are both caring and harmful, holding us back physically from a progression, perhaps?

Process of the work and how it evolves its forms intrigues me, as it signals to other associations. The happening of the performance works by evolving these ideas. Particularly with performance and the documentation often becomes the artwork.

The process of editing formulates meaning. For example, the colour changes (why?), the textures (why?) all should be questioned to evolve the concept. Using the reflection of the screen to create new layers, echoes the feeling of being restricted, looking in from an outside world, unable to fully grasp the inner image. This nods to screen cultures and our separation of the virtual and reality, a boundary or veil, sometimes disconnected and out of reach. Are these reflections a documentation of a new time by layering on the underneath image of pixels, perhaps more real? Or are our screen lives just as real? Often, we may feel trapped in our digital realms, or somewhat cross-eyed with amount of screen time… our devises an extension of our bodies, forming routines and habits of actions - swiping, scrolling, tied eyes and thumb aches. Sometimes caught in a daze or timeless, never - ending distraction…

Images taken by Adam West, 2020.

HERE, ending distraction. My work is not about screen culture or technology, though uses these techniques as process. Intrigued by the veils technology provides. Printing of the image on paper as a raw material, then nailed onto a wooden board or moulded into cement becomes more fitting. How the image situates itself into the outside world. How does it relate back to nature, or returning where it was originally captured as another material/matter?

The process of layering images, or placing them into a physical environment orientates to collage. Whether it is accompanied with other images, objects, texts or raw material. The mix and match, just as one encounters everyday life, either surrounded by clutter, or not. One seems intrigued by the mundanity, yet at that very point of intrigue, the mundane becomes something other than that, a little rough around the edges, just that bit more than ordinary. It exits it mundanity, but still associates with it. A new self, because we recognised it as something other than itself. Another possibility. To form new possibilities is exciting for me at this time ( early May 2020). Previous, collage… [it] blends real with impossible. There is something charming about that. Perhaps its impossibility made possible? Something to consider is the action of reality and fantasy.

Often, I do not understand why I am making artworks; they tend to figure themselves out. Art-making is an action I feel I should do, as a release, as a mode to play. A touch of humour here or there is always a good thing. An enjoyable experience of making, produces my favourite artworks. The question now… is where next?

(perhaps a rug, or tapestry, or ceramic! I’m curious about urns - the images and tales told by them - the folklore influence…. )