Porfolio of finalised work for the “Extending Practice” Module and project “Fragmented Fiends: The Child, The Trauma and The Cyborg”.

1.

“Put Number One First (Morts Vivants)” (2021)

Collage; magazines, acrylic paint and pens, biro, PVA glue, printing ink.

297 x 420 mm

This collage was one of the first pieces created for this module, as an exploration and thinking-through-making piece to explore society and its bitter-sweet relationship with death as an extry point into discussing post-humanism and its relevance in our lives. The collage includes decadent, “dangerous” behaviour such as drugs, tattoos and alcohol and our love for it, alongside decadent interview excerpts and zombies to aid as an analysis of society’s demand for post-human life.

2.

“Untitled” (Post-Human Cat collaboration)” (2021)

Food colouring in water, acrylic paint on paper roll

176 cm x 18 cm

Another early and entry-level piece into discussing post-humanism, this piece was a response to a collaboration task and I wanted to experiment with a non-human collaborator. While there are many ways I could collaborate with technology to create cyborg art, I wanted to create something relating to ecology and signs of existence from surroundings. While I feel my work evolved in complexity, the simplicity of the colour palette and intent is successful and impactful that I feel the piece is resolved.

3.

“Into The Jaws of Death“* (2021)

Coated Paper, Fabric Scraps and Acrylic Paint on Canvas,

Canvas: 80cm x 60cm

*Line from “Charge of the Light Brigade” (1854) by Alfred Tennyson

This multi-media piece was created in accompany with my poem “The Well”, both of which respond to a dream and post-human trauma from COVID-19. The piece utilises resources from the ecology of my lockdown home to ground the focus and emphasise the claustrophobic atmosphere of the piece as the information, images and windows come tumbling out of the piece.

7, 6, 5 & 4.

Face Ecology series (2021)

Top Left: Face rubbing with Oil Pastel

Top Right: Make Up on Make Up Wipe

Bottom Left: Face rubbing with Oil Pastel

Bottom Right: Face paint on paper

210 mm x 297 mm

This series was developed following from “Into The Jaws of Death”, which used ecology to develop the context of the piece and after the Kitty Finer artist talk in which I realised the post-human nature of my childhood and how I could explore that within my post-human art practice, reusing my childhood drawings along with the image appropriation I utilise. This is demonstrated through using artistic processes, which used some level of image appropriation I used as a child; image rubbings, face paint and make-up.

8.

“Untitled (Childhood Best Friend)” (2021)

Acrylic Paint on Router,

200 mm x 120 mm

Inspired by Nam June Paik’s paintings on technology, this piece anthropomorphises the router my family used during my later childhood as a “childhood best friend”, using a childish process of finger painting and colour palette. Simple in creation, this piece is impactful and resolved as it easily expressing my message on post-humanism from our symbiotic relationship with Cyberspace as well as reusing an uncontrolled, unassimilated child practice of painting on something that should not be painted, the opposite of the cyborg.

9.

“In Symbiosis” (2021)

Multi Media: Acrylic Paint, Tights, Acetate, Printer Paper on Canvas

100 cm x 100cm

In Symbiosis is a complex, fragmented and unfixable narrative of my childhood, nostalgia and trauma by taking a plethora of resources and constructing a composition which is cohesive and sensical. Where Into The Jaws of Death was weak, In Symbiosis develops from and strengths as Into the Jaws of Death used too many images and unloaded too much information to allow the audience to process. While this piece is packed with information, each element has breathing room to be recognised and processed.

10.

“If These Yellow Walls Could Talk” (2021)

Oil Pastel and Sharpie on 150 GSM Cartridge Paper

59.4 x 84.1cm

Taking childhood images which involve a post-human symbiotic object, the viewer is invited into a childhood that is suffocating, sinister and assimilating as they are being trained to control and be reliant on symbiotic relationships.

11.

“Flesh Prison” (2021)

Acrylic Paint and Printing Ink on 150 GSM Cartridge Paper

59.4 x 84.1cm

A departure from child drawings, this piece takes a quote from a piece of writing and experimenting with presenting writing and the suffocating atmosphere of living, with post-childhood trauma and feeling trapped as the cyborg, in a flesh prison.

12.

“Untitled AV Piece” (2021)

Digitally scanned technology and edited sound

Film

This experimental AV piece is a development from a previous sound piece. The visual element is focused on the language and symbols of technology and finding similarities between our own existence and function, and technology, that be instructional pamphlets or the the bottom of the devices. The sound element is constructed and distorts sounds from domestic cybernetic life.

13.

“Childhood Borders” (2021)

Collage; magazine and double sided tape

280 x 295 mm

This collage is constructed from magazines and double sided tape; it is not backed onto paper. It began as an experiment but the experimentation with form and structure as well as exploring the borders of childhood from the edges of clothing, objects, hair and room decor contributed to this experiment becoming a resolved piece.

14.

“Unfixable Youths” (2021)

Multi-Media: Magazines, foil, acrylic paint and medium on 150 GSM Cartridge Paper

59.4 x 84.1cm

This multi-media piece depicts multiple yellow and green icons and avatars from late 90s to early 2000s child culture. This began as an experiment with limiting colour palette and controlling the connotation of colour – Selecting yellow and green to connote sickness and disorientation. The image is unfixable, fragmented and disorientating to reflect reflecting back on childhood and how the objects, your “childhood best friends”, hold a new meaning as an adult. They’re post-human.

15.

“The Immoral Fatality of Screens and Teens” (2021)

Archival digital resources (1978-1989), Archive.org, Adobe Indesign.

3-Minute Film

This film takes a piece of writing written over multiple sessions of subconscious writing, forming one string of consciousness, concerning the impact of consuming digital content since youth. The film is constructed using text as a material and archival, digital resources from Archive.org; the archival resources are early CGI Demo Reels from 1978-1989, this is used to construct an eerie, alienating experience, using the uncanny valley and using underdeveloped, cartoon technology to reflect the subject of childhood.

This and Untitled AV Piece would be projected so the pop-up windows would stand out on the wall and return a materiality to the digital pieces.

16.

“Dirty Laundry” (2021)

Acrylic on Canvas

80 x 60 cm

In a limited colour palette and dystopian style inspired by Oscar Murillo and Mark Flood, this piece takes animal post-human entities, alongside patterns from fabrics; both appropriated from my childhood. This is to further explore the post-human elements of childhood and childhood culture, as Bagpuss and the Clangers are over 40 years old. This is the first and only positive piece as my bond to these characters, fabrics and drawings are positive and providing a counterpoint to the negative work is important. This piece is still fragmented and unfixable, there is a sense of narrative and interaction, perhaps the images are healing and becoming united.

17.

“Latch-Key Kids” (2021)

Multi-Media; Acrylic, Magazine, Cotton on Linen

 24 x 36 Inches

18.

“Digital Trauma Site” (2021)

Acrylic on a Router, nail.

25 cm x 15 cm

Another way to respond to using a router, this is the underbelly of Untitled (Childhood Best Friend) and combining both works, Flesh Prison (2021) and Untitled (Childhood Best Friend) (2021). While my symbiotic relationship with technology is positive, as demonstrated through Dirty Laundry and Untitled (Childhood Best Friend) (2021), it is a site of trauma, which is characterised by the presentation as an abject, flesh object with trauma sites of blood and injury (nail). This is less a presentation from a childhood perspective and more so taking a childhood object (router) and presenting from my modern perspective, reflecting on childhood experiences through expressionism.

PRESENTATION in the Gallery:

These images denote a demonstration with how Dirty Laundry, If These Yellow Walls Could Talk, Unfixable Youths, Digital Trauma Site, and Flesh Prison (2021), some of the work from this portfolio, would be displayed together in a gallery setting. These are several different ways to display the work, with some on the walls, on the floor, or all together on the floor. I think the best presentation is all the work on the rug/mat like a child has sat down and made them in a spree of childish creativity and also a reference to digital screens overflowing with information. Flesh Prison and Digital Trauma Site work best together on the stool as they flow together as one installation, especially with the cream wooden stool. However, the work still suits and functions well in a traditional gallery display, on walls and on a white plinth.

Artist note: I apologise for the quality of some of these images. I have moved around a lot this semester and have had to leave work behind, unable to retake photographs of the work and the closure of the School of Art on a bank holiday effected the photographing or filming of the last work finished.