Artist Statement for Project Two

I decided to continue with my first project and expand on it. I continued with the same materials (CDs, Fishing Net and Fishing Line) and tried to let the process dictate how it turned out. I moved away from the symbolism and created shapes as they occurred to me during the process.

I did not have a final plan for this work. I went in to the gallery and went in with the shapes I had created and put them together in a way I felt they should go. I feel the pieces flowed well together and the colours complimented each other. I also liked the juxtaposition of the materials. The harshness and aggressiveness of the CDs, compared to the delicate nature of the netting.

I looked at ghost nets, Sarah Sze and ocean documentaries for inspiration.

Tony Albert

Tony Albert is a contemporary Australian artist that works with painting, photography and mixed media. His work engages with the and historical issues of Australia and the Aboriginal culture. He also has a fascination with the kitsch.

In Headhunter Albert uses objects that he had been collecting over several yeas and makes the text an essential part of the work. Albert portrays the racism found within Australia's past and puts emphasis on the commodification of the Aboriginal people.

Sorry is another work by Albert that utilises text.This work commemorates the famous apology that Kevin Rudd, the former Prime Minister, gave to Indigenous Australians. This was an apology for the mistreatment and suffering from the Australian Government towards them in the past. Albert believes that the government offers many broken promises and  portrays this with the use of the kitsch faces in the piece. Albert only takes this apology at face value, until real change is observed. 

A Collected History by Albert uses a collection of Aboriginalia. This is a term that he uses to describe objects that feature the kitschness of some portrayals of Aboriginal culture. Albert refashions Aboriginal history and interrogates the naive nature of the images he uses. 

The Tissue Culture and Art Project

The Tissue Culture and Art Project is a project that explores the use of technology in artistic expression, Specifically, tissue technologies. This project investigates the concept of the Semi-Living. Parts of complex organisms that are sustained to live outside the body. These artistic experiments question the perceptions we have of life and identity. By doing this, they are able to highlight the positions we have on the relationship between humans and other living beings and the environment. They interrogate the ethics that surround issues of partial life and the future of them. 

Victimless Leather is a work that explores these issues. In particular, the relationship between animals and humans. Humans cover their bodies in an attempt to protect themselves from the environment. This is a social and complex issue that deals with social class and identity. Victimless Leather is grown out of cell lines which form a living layer of tissue. This tissue creates a leather like material. This project confronts people with the moral implications of wearing garments made from dead animals. Victimless Leather offers the possibility of wearing 'leather' that does not come from an animal. 

Atul Dodiya

Atul Dodiya is a contemporary Indian artist that works over a broad range of mediums. From assemblages and sculptures, to works on paper and paintings. Dodiya engages with both political and art history and connects that with Indian culture. In a lot of his works, Dodiya references myths, religion and folklore. In Sabari With Her Birds,  Dodiya references an episode in the Ramayana. This text embodies the fundamental concepts of Hinduism. 

'Shocked by the killing of birds for her wedding feast, Sabari renounces marriage and lives as a hermit in the forest. For many years she seeks out the single sweetest fruit in preparation for God’s visit. Finally Rama, an avatar of the supreme god Vishnu and hero of the Ramayana, wanders by and Sabari offers him the fruit. Although she has bitten it to test its sweetness (and so defiled it), Rama recognizes that the gift comes from her deep devotion and eats. In bliss, Sabari dies. '

Dodiya layers his work with the imagery of mythic, national and personal references. Sabari's actions symbolizes the grinding passage of her time. The red branches holding the birds reflects both the horrifying wedding feast and her union with the natural world. Dodiya has also linked this imagery to the ancient Indian motif of a woman intertwined with a tree. 

In Woman from Kabul, Dodiya has created a work about living in Afghanistan at the turn of the millennium. He recall a country that was once rich in history, but now it has collapsed from the weight of war. The elderly woman is revealed as skin and bones and squats over a decorative backdrop. Here, Dodiya is referenced the oppression and poverty that has taken over the city. He highlights the plight of the refugee. 

Ghost Nets

GhostNets Australia

The Ghost Net Art Project aims to facilitate community art projects using washed up nets from the ocean. Through this project they have created a whole new genre of art, using discarded pieces of rubbish to make something wonderful. They raise awareness of the damage being done to the marine environment. 

Ocean Inspiration

Throughout this project I was inspired by documentaries on the ocean. The Cove focused on the culling of dolphins within Japan, and the affect it has on the species, the ocean and the towns of Japan. Mission Blue is about an oceanographer and environmentalist, Sylvia Earle, and her campaign to create protected marine sanctuaries around the world. 

I also looked into The Great Pacific Garbage Patch which is a trash vortex filled with micro plastic. Mammals get tangled in abandoned fishing nets, which are often discarded due to their low cost. I decided to use netting within my work to reference this. 

I hope that though my work I can explore the concept of the everyday, the ephemeral and the throw away - and show the affect it has on the ocean. 

Artist Statement

I began this project by looking at everyday objects that are cheap and considered to be a throw away. We discard so much ‘trash’ every single day and unfortunately it all has to go somewhere.

I have recently been looking at a lot of documentaries on the impact we humans have on the world, and more specifically them impact we have on the ocean. Mission Blue was one documentary that really stuck with me. It is about an oceanographer and environmentalist, Sylvia Earle, and her campaign to create protected marine sanctuaries around the world. She travelled throughout the world to show the destruction and decay of the ocean floor and what we can do to protect them.

I recently moved house and as I was unpacking I realised I have a lot of disposable items, one of which was CD’s. I wanted to upcycle them into a work that discussed the issues of cheap and throw away items as part of our everyday world. I also wanted to use a material that largely referenced the ocean, and I chose to use netting. I liked the juxtaposition of the soft, flowing net against the hard, stiff CD’s.

I chose to hang the work in the shape of an egg or chrysalis to symbolise the life and transformation of the ocean. I then put the CD’s together in a very aggressive way and embedded them throughout the netting to symbolise the destruction throw away objects have on the ocean floor, which ultimately turns to death.