2021

 
Still from Modernity / Power
Video, 12.50 mins
Made from appropriated backstage musical Hollywood films made between 1929 and 1940, Modernity / Power reframes latent power dynamics on the screen through text interventions and foley sound–clips, clicks, clapping, tap-dancing, and breathing. These disruptions draw attention to the labour of the bodies performing and their incredible skills.

Pose and Shadow, Alexandra Danilova
Watercolour on A4 watercolour (300gsm) paper (210 x 297 mm)

2020

 
Ascending A Staircase, Grand Theatre, Blackpool, 1894, 2020
Giclee print on white cotton rag paper, edition of 5, 84 cm x 84 cm
Edition of 15, 34 cm x 34 cm
How Can I Perform As An Image? (Catherine Hamilton and Burgundy Circle)
Collage on A4 watercolour (300gsm) paper (210 x 297 mm)
How Can I Perform As An Image (Getty Jasonne with Gold Triangle Head)
Collage on A4 watercolour (300gsm) paper (210 x 297 mm)
How Can I Perform As An Image? (Erni Erica with Gold Square)
Collage on A4 watercolour (300gsm) paper (210 x 297 mm)
How Can I Perform As An Image (Abstract / Bauhaus Catherine Hamilton)
Collage on A4 paper (210 x 297 mm)
How Can I Perform As An Image? (multicolour silhouette Getty Jasonne)
Watercolour on A4 paper (210 x 297 mm)
Pose and Shadow, Dorothy Dilley
Watercolour on A4 watercolour (300gsm) paper (210 x 297 mm)

2018

 
Felicity Means Happiness, 2018
Video, 16 mins

The story of a 98-year old former chorus girl. In the thirties, Felicity was a Bluebell Young Lady. She toured France, Germany, and Italy until WW2 was declared in Italy. Felicity Means Happiness shows Felicity, telling her stories, and Carr showing Felicity her artworks inspired by 1930s dancers, and footage of an Austrian film Felicity was in. What is conveyed is the connection between the two women as well as the realities of dancing and living independently in the thirties.
Bauhaus Bühnenchor, 2018
Performance, 35 mins
Construction House, S1 Artspace

Choreography by Lucy Haighton
Scarf design by Katy Aston / Fison Zair
Performers: Celia Anderson, Julia Bisby, Jo Dunkly, Liz Searle, Emily Stokes, and Roanna Wells.

Bauhaus Bühnenchor is a live performance that experiments with the girl troupe kickline. Using the kickline as a form with the potential to represent women’s collective and creative force Bauhaus Bühnenchor imagines the experiences of Weimarian female art students and chorus girls as well considering the context of dancing in a troupe today. 
Sep 202018
 

I had so much fun showing my work at Abingdon Studios in Blackpool. Here’s the documentation. I am so grateful to show my new video work Felicity Means Happiness for the first time in Blackpool.

Photo Matt Wilkinson, Abingdon Studios Project Space
Photo Matt Wilkinson, Abingdon Studios Project Space
Photo Matt Wilkinson, Abingdon Studios Project Space
Photo Matt Wilkinson, Abingdon Studios Project Space
Photo Matt Wilkinson, Abingdon Studios Project Space
Photo Matt Wilkinson, Abingdon Studios Project Space
Photo Matt Wilkinson, Abingdon Studios Project Space

2007

 
Ladies-leaning-over-gate
I Saved You From Obscurity, Others Are Not So Lucky (2007)
Box 20 cm x 13 cm x 2 cm, photograph 17.5 cm x 12 cm
Card, satin, B&W photograph

A multiple of one of six different fibre-based, hand-printed photographs presented in a red-satin lined box. The photographs are made from negatives found in a Parisian flea market. A central portion of each photograph has been removed with a scalpel.
Interior-with-mirror
I Saved You From Obscurity, Others Are Not So Lucky (2007)
Box 20 cm x 13 cm x 2 cm, photograph 17.5 cm x 12 cm
Card, satin, B&W photograph
Interior-with-drawers
I Saved You From Obscurity, Others Are Not So Lucky (2007)
Box 20 cm x 13 cm x 2 cm, photograph 17.5 cm x 12 cm
Card, satin, B&W photograph
Beach-tall-lady
I Saved You From Obscurity, Others Are Not So Lucky (2007)
Box 20 cm x 13 cm x 2 cm, photograph 17.5 cm x 12 cm
Card, satin, B&W photograph
Beach-short-lady
I Saved You From Obscurity, Others Are Not So Lucky (2007)
Box 20 cm x 13 cm x 2 cm, photograph 17.5 cm x 12 cm
Card, satin, B&W photograph
3-people-outside-church
I Saved You From Obscurity, Others Are Not So Lucky (2007)
Box 20 cm x 13 cm x 2 cm, photograph 17.5 cm x 12 cm
Card, satin, B&W photograph
Shut-box
I Saved You From Obscurity, Others Are Not So Lucky (2007)
Box 20 cm x 13 cm x 2 cm, photograph 17.5 cm x 12 cm
Card, satin, B&W photograph
Spines

I saved you from obscurity, others are not so lucky

A found negative is a mystery–has the photograph ever been printed?  If so, how big was the photograph, how did it look, were they dearly loved images carried around, prints forgotten at the back of a drawer or large framed photographs?

This piece of work explores the mystery by presenting photographs from negatives found in a flea market in Paris, in a box fit for jewellery, but with a portion of the centre of the image carefully removed with a scalpel.  The benevolent gesture of saving these images is conditional.

The hole has other meanings too.  By taking out a crucial part of the centre of the photographs, even less is known.  The story is unfinished.  The hole gives the viewer licence to complete the picture themselves.  The photograph is whatever you want it to be.

This piece of work is a multiple and I have produced 100 numbered boxes with one of the six photographs in each.