(I'm just going through the suggested questions here - so feel free to skim read)
I cannot describe to you how I felt upon finding out that I was:
a) shortlisted for ArtExpress
b) accepted into AGNSW and Bathurst Regional Gallery exhibitions.
I had never actually made it a goal to get into ArtExpress - I was more focused on doing well in the HSC with two major works (I did Design & Tech too) and enjoying my last year of high school. I think that made getting into the exhibition even better, because it was so unexpected.
At the beginning of 2008, I went to see ArtExpress with trepidation as part of a Visual Arts excursion. The works were of such a high standard, both in terms of visual presentation and the ideas and concepts put forward. I read every single artist's statement in search of inspiration for my BOW. At this point I thought I had it all figured out - a picture in my head of how I wanted my work to look come September. To all you HSC art students - do not set your mind on one final outcome! As the year progressed, I was confronted by events, ways of seeing, people, emotions, conversations, revelations and relationships which not only changed the perfect little BOW picture in my mind, but also what I wanted to convey and share with audiences who would view my work.
The conceptual nature of my work is quite personal and relates very closely to a relationship that I share with someone close to me. I did not realise this until the final stages before the printing of my photographs when words sprang to mind, describing feelings and personality traits that individually, meant little, but in a set of 11 - created a 'non-linear narrative' of the relationship and its many facets. The idea to use clothing to create a 'still-life portrait' came from my art teacher. From there I pretty much experimented with every bit of clothing I could find until I came across the tailored white button-down shirt that appears in my final photos. I continued working with this shirt because it draped well and created a nice contrast against the black backdrop.
As for the physical part of the work - I shot my photos in a tiny room at school with the school's camera and black fabric as a back drop - the only object that belonged to me was the white shirt. We shared some interesting conversations during our time together - he now hangs at the back of my wardrobe dotted with pin holes and a rip around the collar.
In terms of inspiration - Tracey Emin's 'My Bed' played a huge part in taking an item of clothing and giving it life and personality with its crinkles and the crazy positions I put it in. I also played around with photograms - Anne Ferran style - in the school dark room. I was going to include some of them in the final work, but came to the conclusion that less is more.
Text was something that I had always wanted to include in my work - I just had trouble trying to figure out what I could say without being too literal - so I turned to Jenny Holzer and Barbara Kruger for their innovative use of text and was able to find a starting point for my own text. My biggest inspiration, was definitely my best friend who plays the 'you' character in my work - the relationship that we share was so beyond anything I had shared with someone before and supplied me with endless ideas for photographs and accompanying text. I didn't realise that he played such a huge role in my work until I started writing 'tag-lines' for my photographs as I was preparing them to go to the printers.
The art-making process was long, hard and emotionally draining. Creating an artwork requires much more than physical and mental effort - especially if you are choosing to work from the subjective frame (like I did). The best advice I can give is to listen to advice from your art teachers (even when you might not want to) and look at your artwork from different perspectives ie. art audience, non-art audience, student, teacher, art critic. Most importantly!!! Don't make it too literal. Someone who has never seen your work should be able to look at it (perhaps read an artist's statement) and have a general idea or their own interpretation of your work - don't spell it out for people, let them do the thinking.
I don't know if this means much - but I have always been interested in art. Some people collect stamps, my mother collects Australian artwork. We have works by Carlos Barrios, Suzanne Chick, Kveta Daniels and Picasso prints all over the house. If someone asked me whether I was an artist, I'd say no. My interest in the visual arts is better described as appreciative.
Now that I'm in ArtExpress, I'm really worried about how they will be hanging my work and I pray that it is set-up according to the plan I handed in with my work. It's meant to read across so people walk along the wall, look at it each photo and then read the matching tag. Even though the story is just bits and pieces of mental dialogue, I still want it to be read in a certain order.
This year, I'll be studying design in visual communications at UTS. As for the future beyond university, I would like to create more works and explore different concepts and mediums - but for now, I'm happy to look-on and admire the works of others.
By the by - my work is called II (Two) - keep an eye out for it.
Well that's all from me!
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