Welcome to a New Term!

Another new term so to begin I talk about my therapy as this seems to be all the rage!  Over the Christmas period I began a Monkey making marathon!

The Sock Monkey Kit

I made many monkeys which I will add photographs here.... I found the sewing very relaxing and stress relieving and while making them I smoked less and generally was more relaxed. How you ask is this at all relevant to this coming term!?  I wanted to share this as I do enjoy making things whether physical or digital and this term I would like to incorporate this idea of 3D and I go back to looking at Helen Chadwick

Helen Chadwick, The Labours I and II.

Helen Chadwick (1953-1996) used performance, photography, 3D Object and mixed media to express her materiality, corporeality and questioned notions of societal norms within her work.  The Tate states that: 'Chadwick was known for "challenging stereotypical perceptions of the body in elegant yet unconventional forms. Her work draws from a range of sources, from myths to science, grappling with a plethora of unconventional, visceral materials that included chocolate, lambs tongues and rotting vegetable matter.' (Tate 2020)

I particularly am inspired by The Labours where Chadwick becomes part of the object embedded into its very essence with the silver gelatin of the photograph. Here below her body is ingrained into the material.  This physicality of the image is something I am really interested in creating with my own work.

The obituary that appeared in The Independent stated: 'Chadwick made her art splice the sensuous with the cerebral in a quest to bend, stretch and dissolve age-old certainties of who and what we are.' (Buck, Monday 18 March 1996)

This exploration of the physical combined with considered thinking is what I most enjoy about this work and hope that my own work has these aspects. 

Helen Chadwick The Labours V 1986

References 

Tate Modern Online (2020) Helen Chadwick [Online] Available from: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/helen-chadwick-2253 (Accessed 13th January 2020)

Buck L. (1996) Obituary: Helen Chadwick [Online] Available from; https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituaryhelen-chadwick-1342742.html (Accessed 13th January 2020)