Student Led Project: Complusion

Extended Student led project: Compulsion

Roses

Confessions: Bedsheet

Confessions: Graffiti

Confessions: Food

https://www.instagram.com/p/BRMRwI2gMBp/?taken-by=lauren.rea

Confessions: Single Line

Click to see experimental videos

https://www.instagram.com/p/BRMOvilA52d/?taken-by=lauren.rea

https://www.instagram.com/p/BRMhk5aAobW/?taken-by=lauren.rea

A Study in OCD

Hangers and Wire Words

Tape Text

Cathy De Monchaux is a contemporary French artist who creates sculptures that often have organic or sexual overtones, using glass, metal and leather. She often juxtaposes her work, composing the hard and the soft to play off each other. I could apply this concept of “The Hard” and “The Soft” quite easily, exploring the materiality of my work and the relationship this develops to create a tension between both materials and the viewer.

This piece was inspired by these roses that I got for Valentines Day, which made me curious about the origins of the annual holiday. Originally, it was the ancient roman festival of Lupercalia, a festival of fertility. In order to disband pagan practices, in the 14th century, Pope Gelasius rebranded it as a Christian celebration. Today, roses are a key symbol of romance, particularly in the case of the red rose, meaning passion. The experimental sculpture was the first exploration into my extended student lead project and my theme of obsession. Love is one of the most common emotions to become obsessed over, in which a person is unable to accept failure or rejection, linking closely to mental illness, borderline personality, and or attachment disorder.

Metal Thorns

This piece explores the materiality of the natural vs. the manmade, the hard vs. the soft. However, the nails were cleverly manipulated to appear like part of the rose. This created an interesting juxtaposition of materials. Furthermore, the combination of this material creates a tone of static violence and bitterness associated with obsessive love.

10 Red Roses + 9 Roses

The significance of 10 Red Roses means “you are perfection” – again linking to this idea of perfection and obsession. These roses express an unwillingness to get rid of the roses. When considering materiality, there is an interesting juxtaposition between the materials, as well as the horizontal vs the linear.

When I made 9 Roses felt it did not manifest as an aesthetically successful piece. This piece looks again at the symbolism of roses: 9 Roses suggest a promise of dedication, with the nail through the rose maintaining an undertone of subtle violence – however – there was a sense of hindrance about the black mount that deducts from the overall effect of the rose.

Single Rose

the obsession of love and the violence or aggressive behaviour can be connoted in this minimalist sculpture was powerful in its understated nature. However, I feel it would have perhaps been more effective if I had made more of these miniature sculptures, but this arguably would have lost compositional impact.

This was inspired by the 15 hour piece of automatic writing, taking quotes from the base text. I then wrote on these three by four cotton sheets with thick black acrlic paint. This was meant to have an element of humor to it due to the simply explicit expression of the statement. This links to my project of obsession through food - not only in regards to myself, but for people at my age at the moment, particularly when thinking about junk food and inexpensive purchasing. When in crit, it was commented that these pieces were both "relatable"and "Crude" - Almost like a protest banner. To develop, I could write on the walls, connoting ideas of graffiti and suggest a sense of permanence, perhaps even more powerful

This investigation was an exploration into obsessive behaviour and OCD. There seemed to be an almost comedic simplicity to the concept. This sequence works to explore the profound frustration that people with obsessive compulsive disorder would experience. However, interestingly enough, the screws took on a sort of narrative or personality. This series also created a sense of satisfaction, or in the case of the disorganised sequences, creates the desire to fix. I was interested to explore the impact of different compositions, colours and types of nails. In regard to my presentation of the images, it resonates with the essence of the work, overall adding to the sense of OCD.

Agnes Richter was an Austrian seamstress and patient in an insane asylum in the 1890s. During her time there, she densely embroidered her straight jacket with unreadable phrases, words and drawings about her thoughts and feelings whilst incarcerated. This artist influenced me through her desire to express herself whilst institutionalized.

This piece of work is an extended body of automatic writing created over a 15 hour period, created from permanent ink pens and a double white bed sheet. The bedsheet was very significant as my bed is where I spend a great amount of my time as it is my “safe place”. Furthermore, my bed is where I dream or meditate, thinking freely. Furthermore, the format in which I have written is linear, however, my thought pattern is not linear as thought does not have a beginning or an end; in retrospect, my writing is a jumble of the profound and superficial. Of course, my writing style also contradicts the content of my erratic thought pattern, presenting it as an organised mass of text.

The death of the author was a theory developed by Rowland Barthes, questioning who is the “real” author of a piece of work, arguing that it is a multifaceted manifestation of an individual’s interpretation. Barthes argues that every piece of writing was inspired by an idea or text already in existence, undermining the authority of the author. This means that once the viewer reads my text, they reinterpret my words and became an author, bringing about “The Death of the Author”; this creates questions of my own authorship and creative licence. I also had a challenge with when obsession ends – when you’re not enabled to write anymore, and if I could control the obsession or if it will control me, using negative space to create intrigue from the audience: why there? The audience are intimately close in order to read the text, creating a literal dialogue between the viewer and the work, which is why I didn’t drape the sheet, so there is nothing hidden from view.

Ray Laing has “always been obsessed with representing words” often with philosophical, political and comedic statements. I feel she is trying to express something that cannot solely be verbally expressed – attempting to create a visceral impact with a few minimalist brushstrokes.

These pieces were inspired by the 15 hour piece of automatic writing, taking quotes from the base text. I then wrote on these three feet by four feet cotton sheets with thick black acrylic paint. This was meant to have an element of humour to it due to the simply explicit expression of the statement. This links to my project of obsession through food – not only in regards to myself, but for people my age at the moment, particularly when thinking about junk food and inexpensive purchasing. When in crit, it was commented that these pieces were both “relatable” and “crude” – almost like a protest banner. To improve, or move on I could write on walls, connoting ideas of graffiti, and suggests a sense of permanence, perhaps even more powerful.

This exploration of wire came from the desire to make hangers with words, by first experimenting with types and strengths of wire; once this had been determined, I began to write words before creating them to conjoin a hanger. I found that I preferred a more delicate script, rather than block capitals. However, in the case of "fat", capitalized typography works well - creating the illusion of both "Eat" and "Fat". The concept of hangers was symbolic of clothes and the fashion industry, dictating what is acceptable. Yet, I also found that the words alone were also very effective, particularly when casting shadows of the form. This was reminiscent of the idea becoming bigger or more daunting in your head. the evolution of this concept is clear, working in an predetermined way so that the work of my words display true obsession over my bodily insecurities.

Annette Messenger Messenger is a french artist who used hair woven strong enough to make sculptures; she is obviously keenly aware of the stringent impact of materiality has on the viewer, with her work focused on the body, connecting to us culturally via language.

After experimenting with the wire, I began to consider other medias and how the dialogue between materials and concepts is undertaken. Like much of my other work, the ideas of text and obsession have manifested through rather utilitarian means. As such, I have selected black tape to further explore the agency of the written words, following on with the theme of body image and obsession. The project developed on from using wire by considering both the scale and typography of the pieces. I found that allowing the material to move by itself, experimenting with the materiality of the text. The scale was contrasted with the wire words, suggesting that the idea can be blown up, or out of proportion.

I began to experiment with the limits of the material. However, perhaps I havent gone far enough; perhaps I need to have "big" so big that it falls off the sides of the wall, or "small" absoloutly tiny. Of course, maybe it would ne a good idea t invert the scale and size? there is defiatly something interesting about the speculative agency of text...

This experiment unexpectedly turned into a more performative piece, helping me activate text through making the viewer active, rather than passive. The text is written in ink on a strip of velvet-backed ribbon, following obsessive thoughts of existentialism and mortality, always using the influence of automatic writing to develop an air of instinct.

I explored the fabric with a multi-disciplined approach, using video, as well as tying myself up and trying to undo it in an attempt to create a sculptural wall-based experience. I found that all of these experiments and a different impact, however I felt that the videos were most effective as it created an altered sense of reality where time is also altered, developing a sense of hypnotism for the viewer.

From these performance and video pieces, I found that although this is a second-hand experience, there is the illusion of closeness. I guess there is a metaphorical concept with the nature of this piece as to read it, the viewer would have to unwind it, unraveling the words. This piece appears pretty resolved. If looking towards progress, I could create a long piece of a fabric to make the audience create a physical journey as they read or perhaps extending the video work.

This project explores the idea of obsessive behavior and compulsive thought , discussing expression via writing and agency. It was important that no matter the media, the viewer became active, rather than passive - in order to activate the text.