abandoned ( on going)
A derelict house chanced upon in an isolated locale can never be truly empty, for the imagination can never allow it to be so. The space, which may be understood to have once given shelter and protection, has been transformed into something else, perhaps a keeper of romantic notions or purveyor of gothic fear?
Doors and windows are often an area of focus; usually from an exterior perspective, they are the portals between worlds, the world of the familiar and the unfamiliar. From the exterior the viewer confronts a private space; notions of exclusion and territory emerge, whilst the imagined interior suggests a place of sanctuary, or confinement. My work explores the notion of fear and curiosity, superstition and cultural perception, I am interested in the invisible boundaries that exist within the human mind when confronted with these places. The psychology of an abandoned house, the notion of an absent presence continues to intruige and excite me.
Doors and windows are often an area of focus; usually from an exterior perspective, they are the portals between worlds, the world of the familiar and the unfamiliar. From the exterior the viewer confronts a private space; notions of exclusion and territory emerge, whilst the imagined interior suggests a place of sanctuary, or confinement. My work explores the notion of fear and curiosity, superstition and cultural perception, I am interested in the invisible boundaries that exist within the human mind when confronted with these places. The psychology of an abandoned house, the notion of an absent presence continues to intruige and excite me.
cosmic hearth ( no barriers)
Cosmic Hearth 2008
50 etched perspex sheets,fingerprint powder , baby wool and ultra violet torch.
“ Home is the Focal point of cosmic structure,such a conception of place ought to give it supreme value; to abandon it would be hard to imagine”
Yi-Fu Tuan
Ardo house grounds compel the visitor to explore. There are so many nooks and crannies, so many histories which remain secret to our contemporary gaze. Hidden behind the walled garden at the extremity of the property lies a small garden shed. It perches on the outside, beyond the cosy confinement of the walled garden and out house buildings, this place is (was) removed, secretive. This space instantly appealed to me, for it had at once an air of abandonment and a general feeling of maintaining a sense of purpose. It has the potential for contemplative thought being that space removed from sight, the psychological cave! It was no surprise then to discover the swallows nest tucked away in the roof beams.
I am fascinated by the swallow: its winter migration and predictable return to its birth place.In many of the abandoned cottages I have frequented in my research I have found the most beautiful of creations that the swallow has sculpted to perform as its reproductive home. Sometimes I have been fortunate enough to glimpse the ugly fluffy heads which appear to be more beak than anything else, though by my next visit they have flown and the place and its sculptures are again left to their silence.
The shed for me echoes the notion of the absent presence of the Swallows;they fly thousands of miles to have their young in the vicinity of their own birth place. Their departure marks the turning of the leaf and the change of season, their return; rebirth and spring. They exemplify the psychology of absent presence, the ties that bind us to a place, the letting go and anticipated return.
50 etched perspex sheets,fingerprint powder , baby wool and ultra violet torch.
“ Home is the Focal point of cosmic structure,such a conception of place ought to give it supreme value; to abandon it would be hard to imagine”
Yi-Fu Tuan
Ardo house grounds compel the visitor to explore. There are so many nooks and crannies, so many histories which remain secret to our contemporary gaze. Hidden behind the walled garden at the extremity of the property lies a small garden shed. It perches on the outside, beyond the cosy confinement of the walled garden and out house buildings, this place is (was) removed, secretive. This space instantly appealed to me, for it had at once an air of abandonment and a general feeling of maintaining a sense of purpose. It has the potential for contemplative thought being that space removed from sight, the psychological cave! It was no surprise then to discover the swallows nest tucked away in the roof beams.
I am fascinated by the swallow: its winter migration and predictable return to its birth place.In many of the abandoned cottages I have frequented in my research I have found the most beautiful of creations that the swallow has sculpted to perform as its reproductive home. Sometimes I have been fortunate enough to glimpse the ugly fluffy heads which appear to be more beak than anything else, though by my next visit they have flown and the place and its sculptures are again left to their silence.
The shed for me echoes the notion of the absent presence of the Swallows;they fly thousands of miles to have their young in the vicinity of their own birth place. Their departure marks the turning of the leaf and the change of season, their return; rebirth and spring. They exemplify the psychology of absent presence, the ties that bind us to a place, the letting go and anticipated return.
the gift
The Gift is a response to Zoe Frazer’s abandoned playhouse. The playhouse stands in an area of the garden secluded from the family home, amidst enormous Scots Pine trees, an ideal location one would suppose to play out childish fantasies. The Chalet style house never really appealed to Zoe she seldom played in it and her parents were slightly confused and disappointed. This notion raised the question, who was the play house really for? Children like to create places to hide away from adult gaze; dens, tree houses, little tents made from an old sheet over a washing line, the list goes on. Does the ready made then spoil the necessity to invent and imagine? The house in the woods is an adult notion, something heard of in childhood but its meaning is not comprehensible until maturity, this, by its nature, is the function of the fairytale. By removing the playhouses identity I hoped to allow it to become an imaginative space highlighting the notion of anticipation and of escapism in all its perceivable forms. The structure contains a peephole where the interior can be viewed as an exterior; a three dimensional picture of the cottage in the woods, the lighting is deliberately dim and it is impossible to see the entire interior. The house in the woods; perhaps a psychological refuge for the self?
I hoped that the deterioration of the brown paper over time would add to the sensation of neglect and abandonment.
I hoped that the deterioration of the brown paper over time would add to the sensation of neglect and abandonment.
the domestic uncanny
This body of work considers psychological space. Place that hovers between the concrete and the imagined, the fairytale, the dream and the waking moment. Here I explore the notion of absence and presence in relationship to an abandoned home and its remaining objects. I am interested to discover whether both the place and the objects can reveal something of their former existence and of the people to whom they belonged. Is it possible that a fragment from a past life can become an embodiment of that person? How can something ordinary and everyday become uncanny? I also explore the influence that both imagination and pre experiential suggestion provide within this context.
To try to understand the psychological and physical elements of the subject I have employed the universal tools of understanding: The cast; to enable the study of form whilst creating a separate entity to that which already exists. The photographic image; to capture time and allow it to be scrutinized. The use of magnification; to examine in detail the workings of the imagination and finally the written word; to provoke thought and enlighten.
To try to understand the psychological and physical elements of the subject I have employed the universal tools of understanding: The cast; to enable the study of form whilst creating a separate entity to that which already exists. The photographic image; to capture time and allow it to be scrutinized. The use of magnification; to examine in detail the workings of the imagination and finally the written word; to provoke thought and enlighten.
beautiful
"Photography concentrates one's eye on the superficial. For that reason it obscures the hidden life which glimmers through the outlines of things like a play of light and shade. One can't catch that even with the sharpest lens.One has to grope for it by feeling...This automatic camera doesn't multiply men's eyes,but only gives a fantastically simplified fly eye's view"
Franz Kafka
from Gustav Janouch's Conversations with Kafka
Franz Kafka
from Gustav Janouch's Conversations with Kafka
Tales 2007
The things that stay with us longest are those we experience as children. That sense of wonder which consumes us as children is for me present in the 1960s Ladybird well loved tales.The translation of the pages into stitched form highlights both the passage of time and pieces of fragmented memory that the stitches represent:the thread of a tale.
absent presence/curiouser still/somewhere in between
Place, be it home or other, exists for almost all of us as a physical fact, but it also occupies a psychological space in our imaginations. The uncanny space that hovers between levels of the imaginary and the concrete, the familiar and the strange, embedded memories and aesthetic beauty, that speaks of fairytale or dreams along with the notion of the fragment or miniature whilst through its rhetoric, its ability to simultaneously evoke a sense of nostalgia and fear, are explored in this work.