Fold, drape, twist.

After looking at the concept of the fold by Deleuze, and Alison Watt's 'Phantom' works at the National Gallery, I was motivated to present a response to what I had found. To view more images, please visit my Facebook page, where you can see the full album.

3. Drawers, Chests and Wardrobes

"Wardrobes with their shelves, desks with their drawers, and chests with their false bottoms are veritable organs of the secret psychological life. Indeed, without these 'objects' and a few others in equally high favor, our intimate life would lack a model of intimacy. They are hybrid objects, subject objects. Like us, through us and for us, they have a quality of intimacy." - Gaston Bachelard

The following images were influenced by the above quote, however, taking it one step further and placing a forgotten space into an intimate space. I set up video cameras under 2 beds and my sons cot in my house, recording the forgotten spaces, illustrating lost objects, forgotten rubbish and storage space. The 20 minute videos are very subtle, as it is only the lighting within the frame that changes throughout the recording.

I plan to use the idea of these spaces as representing the psychological life within my degree show work.

"Becoming a mother affects an extreme and abrupt change in a woman’s life, constituted of loss of identity, loss of financial independence, loss of personal space and time, loss of status and extreme restrictions of freedom in addition to the changes in the body; often irreparable scars and physical trauma. Going through these changes, learning to accept what is lost and discovering the joys of the maternal role is a gradual process." Eti Wade - Mother Artist

Mini Exhibition - March 2015 - 'THE HOUSE'

Practice run for degree show, images courtesy of Fenia Kotsopoulou, Daz Disley and Anna Kalyta-Spawton.

http://www.feniakotsopoulou.de/

http://dazdisley.co.uk/

http://falsettoslumber.wix.com/annakalytaspawton

These are only a select few of the images taken, to view more, please visit my Facebook page, or 'THE HOUSE' official website.

The House - Website

http://thehouseuol.wix.com/thehouse

Trial of installation

Within the group I am in, based on themes and interests, we have chosen a space in which to display our work, continuing with the house theme. Several of us have a window space in which we can occupy with our work. I have chosen to place a full size bed in my space, making it up as a normal bed would look. However, underneath I plan to create a womb-like environment (referring back to importance of my tummy) in which the viewer can experience the work through projected video, sound and warmth. I briefly installed the bed within the space in order to check measurements, however, I had to take it down due to pending allowance from health and safety. The bed fits perfectly, however when looking underneath I feel I need to block out the light more than I have. I used a red sheet and draped it to create a belly-button like shape. This relates to my work as the belly button is from the umbilical cord, which attaches yourself to your mother in the womb. More development is needed, however I am excited to see how it plays out.

Proposed space for mini exhibition

Further video work

I have been exploring my own stomach using video, creating a somewhat abstract and oblique image of myself. I plan to project in places such as under the bed, and also back on my own stomach in order to see what it effect it creates within the spaces. My stomach is a very important part of my body now, as I carried my son in it for 9 months. The video footage shows my baby weight gain and also my stretch marks, both caused my pregnancy, however, I have learnt to embrace them rather than hate them now.

Under the bed

Since becoming part of a curatorial group at university, I have started looking more at how my work relates to the house. My group was formed through similar interests and themes within our work, and with this we are creating a mini exhibition, in which each artists work relates to a room in the house. my work focuses on the bedroom. I have been looking further into this concept, developing ideas and work to fit within my dedicated space. The space under the bed is often forgotten, dust collects there, unwanted or unused things are kept under it. For children, it can be referred to as where the monsters are. Taking these thoughts into consideration, I realised that this is where I would like my depressive feelings to go, under a bed, away, not needed or wanted. I have explored the space under beds within my home, which revealed objects such as old tissue rolls, storage boxes, suitcases, and in my sons room, a lost dummy. I plan to use this research to develop an installation piece within my group exhibition, further expanding and developing for my degree show in May.

Video work

I have been documenting different things that I feel could contribute to my work in some way or another. I left a video camera recording my son behind his baby gate in order to see what he did when I was not in the room. The footage showed him walking around the room, standing up to the gate, laying and rolling on the floor.

Next, I documented myself twice talking about my experiences of depression. One video shows me talking to the camera, revealing my mouth only, experimenting with movements in order to see how they played back. Another video shows myself 'talking to a brick wall', a phrase in which a lot of mothers use.

A final video was recorded in my sons room, looking out through the window. The audio track to this video is the music and sounds played from his night light. These are sounds that will always remind me of the time when he was first born, the dreaded nights, the non stop crying.