The Act, 2013.
Using film and plaster, along with
found objects, The Act aims to venture to a time of abuse in my childhood and
confront it. The piece is an interactive installation which invites the viewer
to initialise the childhood sound of the music parts. For this piece I have
been heavily influenced by the Kafka play Metamorphosis and have used it as a
metaphor for myself becoming, like Gregor, the squashed bug. The hands on the
wall make the viewer uneasy as they offer the experience to them like a gift,
daring them to get involved, and I have taken inspiration from many horror
films such as V/H/S/ (2012) and The Hostel part three (2011) to help get this uneasy feeling across.
‘Could that have been you father,’
‘Where did you get such strength?’
‘You threw that apple so hard it
sank into my back,’
(Kafka, Metamorphosis, 1915)
Love me, 2013.
Love me explores the world of the
person that is never heard, never acknowledged, and the lengths that they will
go to to
be accepted. Like in the musical Chicago (Ebb/Fosse 1975) Mr Cellophane can be
looked right through exclaiming ‘you never know I’m there’ - whilst donning his
red nose and bowler hat, he is still completely invisible.
On approaching ‘space’ this was a
feeling that was not new to me, so within my piece I wanted to rediscover this
feeling of isolation and desperation within a group of people. Continuing from
The Act, 2013, I have chosen to again use multimedia techniques and film to
create a highly personal piece of art – the one shot format heightens my
vulnerability whereas the lengthy projection exaggerates distance and the
splitting of the persona.
I now feel that the artwork I
create is more important and has more of a soul, in fact part of mine. I have
been that person that craves the attention of others and just wants someone to
love at any cost; that can assimilate to your ideals whilst leaving her own
behind. Ultimately Love me follows nicely from The Act as the abuse that formed
The Act definitely affected the way I am which in turn produced this piece.
Within Love me I have practised with a variety of media, firstly choosing to use plaster, but finally opting
for wood in which I created my ‘crowd’. This was very rewarding as it taught me
processes such as jig sawing which I had never experienced. It mirrors my
earlier work, such as The Box Experiment, 2013, which was heavily involved with
the metal manufacturing process.
I have been influenced by the art
of projection having researched Tony Oursler’s
work The Influence Machine, 2000 as well as this year’s Turner Prize winner
Laure Provost with her work Wantee,
2013. Another pop culture reference to Love me would be the Cardigans’ hit Lovefool…
“So I cried, and I begged for you
to Love me, love me”
Amy Demented, 2014.
Amy Demented
is a look into a person’s mind suffering with dementia. It asks the questions
what if you could converse with your older self? What would you say? And would
they even remember you? The awkward silences showcase the slow descent into the
abyss that is living with dementia.
This piece comes from family
experience, having had two family members struck with this affliction as well
as being around older people in a care home setting; I have seen the slow
deterioration of memory and persona within the people until they are zombie-like
shells in chairs 24/7. I also have a similar thing happening to me, being
epileptic, I am aware from numerous brain scans that every time I have a fit a
portion of my brain cells die.
It has been interesting using green
screen within this piece as super-imposing my ‘younger’ self into the scene
with my ‘older self’ was quite a technical challenge but has been very
rewarding earning me more developed skills using audio visual means. I have
chosen to split the film four ways using external monitors to really exaggerate
the conversation between the two ‘selves’, the sketchy pictures within the
older selves’ mind and the growing isolation of the demented old lady.
I have looked at many different
artists with my research for this piece including
the
work
of William Utermohlen – an artist whom on being diagnosed in 1995 created a
timeline of portraits showing his progression into dementia,
Tom
Hussey and
his photos showing images of Alzeimer’s sufferers and offers
a glimpse into what they see in the mirror – their former selves.
I have also researched Mary Oliver
– an artist whose mother tongue piece had her play and film different
generations, presented on different television sets so that they seemed to
converse.
Following on
from Love Me, 2013 and The Act, 2013; I feel this piece has helped me
explore performance and film techniques in more detail and distinguished my
practice as that of an Audio/Visual artist.
The Brain is Only Temporary, 2014
This
piece also focuses on living with dementia, however it uses
the manipulation of sculpture combined
with film as a metaphor for the disease.
As the boiling water drips onto the ice you see the parts of the brain
slowly melting away, as with the fire on the wax and the planer on the
plaster, until there is nothing left. It
shows the very subtle way dementia involves itself and ultimately takes away a
persons memory like a parasite.
This pieces’ longevity shows the
long time it takes for dementia to take its hold on the mind, especially in the
ice sculpture for the first ten minutes you will see just drips for fractions
of a second, creating the metaphor that dementia is just like the dripping of a
tap yet by the end of the ice piece the water is poured all over it like a
flood, melting any existence of memory. The same is evident in the wax and
plaster versions as the flame gradually turns the wax brain to mush as well as
the plaster brain is slowly corroded by the planer.
For this piece I had been
researching further into the disease looking at dementia charities and speaking
to members of the community as well as looking at artists that manipulate
materials, such as Ted Reiderer who melted vinyl records into images of skulls
to showcase his love of music – the result being clever, yet sinister pieces. I
feel ‘The Brain is Only Temporary’ echoes this as it is alerting something I
fins very important to me, as well as creating a disturbing yet beautiful
image.
Amy Gilbert.
