‘It often happens that neurotic men declare that they feel there is something uncanny about the female genital organs. This unheimlich place, however, is the entrance to the former Heim [home] of all human beings, to the place where each one of us lived once upon a time and in the beginning.’ (Freud, 1919, p.245)
Sarah Lucas’s bed, as well as Tracey Emin (see discussed earlier) inspired by bed. The reason Is because the title of my work was called ‘Home’ and a home is where you sleep; its where your bed is. So to see Lucas, whom I was studying, also having created a bed I felt the need to incorporate both further down the line in order to finish my piece.
I wrote my dissertation upon the uncanny; on the homely and unhomely. I actually had a great interest in this kind of work before hand and looked at a few of the artists while I was planning my dissertation and making my own art for inspiration; in my dissertation I talked about Jake and Dinos Chapman, Sarah Lucas and Hans Bellmer, and I used them for inspiration as well while I was creating my work.
Though not as successful in my second year as my first, I had fun in this second year because for the first time ever I got to create paintings. I made them big, using bright colours and instead of going for my earlier message of abuse I used personal beliefs here; Angels, the otherworld, spirits and so on.
Because of this, I actually felt closer to my work in Lv 5 than in the other years because this year also was the start of the decline of my mental health; I used this to make work and through it, I generated some strange pieces that I felt really spoke about my feelings.
Nothing from this year really rolled into the last year, sadly.
‘Unnamed’ at the white space was my first installation ever; it was within the white space, was dark, involved projectors and had words along the walls around the pieces. The pieces themselves, including a wire deer head bound with string, a rope noose attached to a stand and shadow play was successful. I would not do another installation until my final piece, and this would be the beginning of my interests for them!
Like my end installation as well, both were dingy and not lit well, which added to the atmosphere. They both had dirty floors, both included sculptures and both had some kind of projector in them; the successfulness of the projector use here was the reason I used it at level 6 for my film.
Level four was an exiting time, because before this moment I had only ever experimented in doing work upon the computer and occasionally, when feeling brave, I’d draw something physically. That all changed when I joined UCS and began to really delve into ‘art’.
My stuff in the first year, very much like my last year, revolved around my views and experiences with abuse; I often drew or created things in pain, or creatures that were being abused themselves as a metaphor for life as a whole; this is what I would carry on into Lv 5.
