Work in progress : Ground-Light-Sky

13 Feb – 21 Feb 2012

 ARTIST STATEMENT 

I am pleased to be making artwork in the centre of GRUMPY Manchester’s building, with light-weight recycled materials from the shop. I will be responding to the exhibition space intuitively, making a simple structure in three dimensions. I will make several attempts, before deciding on a final intervention.

Before I start making, I will be sketching and taking photographs around GRUMPY’s, as I am interested in pattern and shape in the built environment.

Intervening in three dimensions extends my own visual and spatial knowledge of that space. I am interested in the experience of making art in space and place and I will document my experiments with video.

But this intervention may also change the space and your experience. Your perception of inside and outside may also be altered.

In my artwork last year, I explored the idea of light as a link between a person on the ground and the sky – a contemplative link. I don’t yet know how this will impact my work in a totally internal space, here at GRUMPY’s.

Background:

I usually visit GRUMPY Manchester as a customer, not an artist, as I buy materials for children’s art projects from the shop.

My own art work is fitted in-between work - I started as a sketcher, embroiderer and painter, and am still drawing – this time, in space. I am now a part time student on the Artist Teacher MA at Liverpool John Moores University. The course opened my eyes last year; I am now experimenting with materials and have begun to work in three dimensions. I use photography for research and have started to use video.

A roofless church in Liverpool, St Luke’s, and artist James Turrell’s use of light as medium and subject provided the original starting point for ideas.

The end of year MA show in August 2011, where I had three days to put up an unplanned installation, provided a stepping stone to working in a public setting.

This work at GRUMPY’s is the next step!