Staffordshire University

We collected suggestions for the name of the degree show 2013 from the class and voted for the most successful.

I thought that a word would not encapsulate all the different artworks as everyone works in different ways and for different reasons. I started to think about what links the artwork together. My suggestion was to name show 53°N -2°E; the coordinates to the gallery that houses the degree show.

I created artwork called Gallery, for the show.

I have been working with castor wheels over the past year. The interest stems from working with objects that are formally representational of the function for which they are created yet are only able to become functional once they have been attached to another object. In Gallery I wanted the castors to retain this quality; therefore, I did not physically manipulate them to become unrecognisable. Instead, I used repetition as a method of alteration of the viewers’ understanding not only of the wheels, but also what they are attached to; temporary gallery walls which are arranged in such a way that they insinuate themselves into the architectural space of the gallery to form one piece of interactive artwork.

Gallery comes after a recent development of site specificity in my practice. I have been interested in working with what I consider to be temporary empty spaces, spaces in which there is no sense of character or permanence. This artwork is motivated by challenging the preconceptions that the audience may have about gallery spaces.

Having looked through photographic documentation of the development of my practice, I came to a realisation that, within my artwork, I explore the relationship between human beings and objects, and how we interact with them. I work with familiar objects to manipulate their philosophical existence which in turn unsettles the viewers understanding of them. This artwork went beyond the use of familiar objects and was concentrated on physically altering the generic gallery space.

In Gallery I employ the entire gallery space that the artwork occupies to be a part of the work and for the work to be a part of the gallery space. Altering the gallery space in a way that the viewer is directed to move their body in a certain way amplifies the question about the understanding of a space that, characteristically, is very familiar.

More images from the degree show preparation week.

The attached photographs represent the decision making process I went through for the configuration of the Castor wheels.

I have titled the degree show work is titled Gallery.

This will make more sense when I upload a photograph of the work in its entirety.

I have become increasingly interested in the temporary nature of spaces, in particular the gallery space. Therefore, I have been experimenting with objects commonly found in the gallery space.

I already work with objects that have connotations of function when viewed but are unable to be functional until they are attached to something else.

A plinth still has a status of being a plinth but it could be argued that it is only functional when it is being used within a gallery setting.

More experiments with Castor wheels and string, this time utilising an object that is commonly found in a gallery space; a plinth.

The attached images represent the experiments I worked on in the period between [OCCUPIED] & the degree show.

These experiments started off as a question, what would happen if I combined the string with Castor wheels?

What came of this was an artwork which played with the recent revelation of my work having an element of anthropomorphism and my ever present fascination with visual movement as I like to call it, suggesting movement through something that is stable.

I like to experiment as much as I can and learn through the process of making. It comes naturally to me. I employ research through practice as a method of working.