One afternoon in 2005, I came across a tin full of cigarette cards at a flea market. I leafed through to look more closely at the miniature pin-ups. I noticed the backs of the cards with the dated biographies of the girls on the cards. I selected all the dancers from the tin (there were actresses, models, swimmers and tennis players I rejected, no one in the tin I had heard of before) and bought all of them. As I walked home, I decided to recreate all the photographs using myself as the model. The original cigarette cards were objects to be held, looked at closely. They were private cards to view, collect and exchange. As enclosures in cigarette packs in the late 1930s, it was presumed that these were gifts for a male consumer. Looking at them with contemporary eyes, they look glamorous, innocent, staged and seductive.
Art Encounters (2008)
An audio piece. I recount some formative art encounters, in order to think about what remains of the encounter. The afterwards reflections; did these experiences form the artist I am now? I presented this as part of the Mid-Residency group show at CalArts.
Last night the exhibition London Life opened at Art Bermondsey/LA Noble Gallery. Two of my cigarette card recreations are in the show, and I was third prize winner for the work. (Thanks to Katherine Angel and Kate Enters for the photos!).
My work will be in Act II and Act III of S1 Member’s Show, Three Act Structure at S1 Artspace, Sheffield. Act II is open 6th August–23rd August and Act III which is a re-mix of Acts I and II featuring all of the works is open 27th August–13th September. The opening of the whole show was on 11th July, and now there is a programme of events that will take place during the subsequent Acts.
In particular there will be a publication and print portfolio launch on Friday 15th August and a screening and performance event on Saturday 6th September. For the latter I am working on a new performance.
I’ll post more about the up-coming events–it’s a very exciting project to be involved in!
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.
