Anthurium

Anthurium is a development on the installation piece which I created for the Holden Cafe Gallery over Christmas. I liked the effect the tracing paper patterned hanging had on the environment and i wanted to see if I could further this idea.

The opportunity arose to exhibit work in Noise Lab on Market St. Manchester this month as part of Collective Vision (a collective formed in 2008 by Interactive Arts students).

The exhibition space was very different to that of the Holden Cafe Gallery and so it was interesting to see how the installation looked aesthetically within more stark surroundings.

I was happy with the piece as I feel it expressed my ideas well and and looked as decorative as I had planned.

The pattern was initially created as a wallpaper design to be used decoratively. The idea behind my work is to question the functionality that interior decoration has, and to give pattern a different form and physical presence within a space. I also wanted to consider the space itself when looking at the functionality of decoration. As a society we only decorate interior rooms which we deem comfortable living spaces. How would Anthurium work in a living room or bedroom? As the tracing paper installation acts as a barrier or screen within the space, how would the inhabitants navigate around such imposing decoration?

"Green Leaves" Chorlton's Big Green Festival

This site specific project was to create a piece of art work for Chorlton's Big Green Festival (27/3/10) which incorporated the themes of growth, sustainability and re-cycling.
When the group first visited the site, myself and a fellow student spotted the same tree to work with and so we decided to collaborate. Both of us enjoy working manually to create artwork so this was the starting point for our ideas. After considering the themes of the festival we chose to create leaves for the tree by re-cycling materials to make handmade paper. We used materials such as old newspapers, flyers, junk mail, leaves and petals, twigs etc. This was pulped down with water, bound and sized using cornflour and then pressed to make to make paper.
The finished "leaves" were strung to the tree using natural twine. The idea was that visitors to the festival could interact with the work by writing or drawing their hints, tips and ideas on how we can be "green".
Now the festival is over, we have removed the paper from the tree and plan to re-use them in a smaller piece of work or bing them as a book for St. Clement's church to keep.
I enjoyed collaborating on this project as I was able to hear alternative ideas which I may not have otherwise considered. Collaborating also helped with the creation of the work itself as it was very labour intensive! Neither of us had made handmade paper before so it was also interesting to learn a new skill and help eachother.
http://greenchorlton.org.uk/