Royal Wedding

My current research is regarding domestic spacial habitation and particularly alternative engagements within domestic space. I had previously been looking at power relations and iconization, but my work started to take me in other directions and the best thing to do is to follow in the direction my practice was going.

I had been looking at the farcical aspects of iconization in portraits of the Queen, Charles and Diana and Simon Cowell that you have seen on this blog previously.

‘we know that a picture is but a space in which a variety of images, none of them original, blend and clash . . . A photographs meaning lies not in its origin but its destination’ - adapted from Roland Barthes “The Death of the Author”

I moved into looking at invading private space. I came across a book printed in 1947 called ‘Royal Wedding’, it documented the life of Queen Elizabeth and her wedding to Albert. I was interested in the details contained in the book. Some of the content was quite invasive.

Heres some quotes of the text I found interesting, ‘Should the Princess’s wedding day be selected as the first post-war occasion to restore to Britain the traditional gaiety of a gala public event’

‘The queer thing about ‘public figures’ is the more fiercely the light beats upon them the less ‘real’ they become to those who read about them and see their photographs almost daily in the newspapers’

I have ‘stolen’ the images from the book and obscured them. In being rephotographed, they are removed from their context and given the potential for virtually unlimited displacement. They are rephotographed at awkward angles, the result is at times are disorienting. A new image is created distinct from the original. The subject in the photograph (some) have been given anonymity through the process of rephotographing. By being taken the image becomes similar to an anonymous memory. The characters are removed from the context they are intended and in effect are making a refusal to conform to the purpose they were originally intended. They have been stripped away from the text that surrounded them.

The Show Must Go On

Above is artwork for a book I'm involved in entitled 'The Show Must Go On', it is a retrospective of exhibitions featured in some UAL libraries over the last few years. It also contains essays writing by students and staff of the colleges.

The Queen

Can't stay still?

I've been exploring this idea of repetition, i've done this through GIF making. It's experimenting with the possibility of endlessness. I'm not really sure if this plays any role in my practise, maybe from the point of space occupation- would this be a way of occupying space for a potentially infinite amount of time?

untitled

book workshop

A book made during a workshop with Ben the theme was sequence. I chose to re-sequence a passage of text thereby creating new narrative and alternative interpretations of the text.

Surprise!

I was out during the good weather doing some painting and I didn't have my glasses on, so I saw something furry running past behind me and I thought it was a cat so I ran after it, 'here kitty come say hello,' but it was no cat . . . . . but a giant very well fed rat.

Pick me up at Somerset House

Images from Pick Me Up, an exhibition of illustration and graphic art at Somerset House. Paper Artist Rob Ryan transferred his studio to the venue for the duration of the show, which i particularly enjoyed. It was really great to see how he works and experience just how much work goes into what he makes, although I think he has other people to do the laborious cutting now. He has lots of interesting bits and pieces up on his walls from embroidery to family photographs. The show also had a cinema area showcasing some great animation, music videos and other moving image pieces.