'Excessive Physicality', (2011) and detail, wax and plastic doll

These works were also included in a feature upon my work in WatchMePivot.

Pipilotti Rist

Finally getting to visit Pipilotti Rist's 'Eyeball Massage' at the Southbank Centre, I was immediately drawn to her 'Massachusetts Chandelier', detail left, a structure created from underwear of the artist's family and friends, and illuminated from both inside and out by two projections. Rist's celebration of the human body here focuses upon natural bodily functions often considered "taboo" to discuss. The artist claims 'the chandelier bridges the contradictions between the things we ignore and the things we look for, the places we come from and want to go back into'.

I was particularly interested in exploring the relationship between clothing and the human body; as explored in previous experimentations, ideas of the body as a malleable, "plastic" subject, as easy to alter as the 'cut of [our] clothes', distinctly within the context of disordered eating and body image, are of strong interest to me. The conflict between rigid self discipline and fragility of tissue paper to create the cast of a Barbie doll, below, create an interesting tension, and is something I am keen to explore, the beginnings of which can be seen in the cast of a mannequin's bust, below.

Untitled, (2011) tissue paper mache

Untitled, (2011) and detail, tissue paper mache and thread

Gesamtkunstwerk: New Art From Germany

Saatchi Gallery's current exhibition 'Gesamtkunstwerk: New Art From Germany' brings together works by recognised artists living and working in Germany today. In an all round exciting and diverse collection, there were certainly some stand out artists for me. Alexandra Bircken, born in Cologne, claims her stretcher frame sculptures are influenced by her background in fashion design, and an interest in material culture; her 2008 piece 'Unit 1' (and detail), & left, incorporates aluminium rods, polyurethane foam, fabric and wool to manipulate 'traditional painting and sculpture into icons of vernacular art and craft.' For me, Bircken's work exploits the tension between formal, traditional artistic containers such as the frame as in 'Unit 1', and the organic, almost uncontrollable forms of her textile craft objects. Bircken herself states her works attempts at 'dismantling prevailing hierarchies of value regarding these objects and materials by way of connecting them, thus putting them in a new context to each other', while playing with an ambiguity between what is real and what is "fabricated".

I was notably intrigued by the more figurative pieces, such as works by Josephine Meckseper and Georg Herold; Herold's overtly sexual and almost fetishised figures. Personally, the use of stitching, as seen in the detail of his Untitled 2011 work, right, suggests almost a sense of bodily mutation, or perhaps reconstruction, linking back to my earlier exploration into the ideas of constructed bodies. The Saatchi states 'Herold’s work plays with our expectations of what it is we are seeing, what art is, or should be, and with the artist’s role in making meaning and challenging the viewer', bringing into his work ideas of Barthes' 'The Death of the Author', and questions of ownership, while the artist believes through his work 'I intend to reach a state that is ambiguous and allows all sorts of interpretations'.

Stage One Exhibition

'You Do Not Have To Be Your Mother' (2011)

'You Do Not Have To Be Your Mother' (2011) installation views

Gloria Steinem, described as an 'outspoken figure on behalf of women's rights and the pro-choice movement' once claimed 'I didn't know that I had a choice for a long time. I didn't want to get married and have children, but I thought it was inevitable, and so, I kept saying: not right now. I kept putting it off. After feminism, I suddenly realised: not everyone has to live the same way. Imagine that!'

The exhibition will run from 30th November to 2nd December in the Chelsea Triangle Space, with the private view taking place 29th from 5-7pm.

My partner recently introduced me to the work of Emily Barletta; her use of thread and yarn was a particular inspiration to the experimental piece below. Works such as 'Untitled (Growth #2)' are, to me, remniscent of lace, and suggest a fragile delicacy - an essence which I hope to have captured and incorporated in the works below. Developing from my previous work, I began to look into ideas of the 'maternal female', and their relation to body image; having struggled with eating disorders from my early teens, I found the connections between female identity and disordered eating incredibly interesting. Could my own problems, as suggested by a therapist, have stemmed from fear of an adult female body, resulting from a lack of understanding of the biological changes occurring in puberty? Was it an unconscious 'rebellion at maternal domestic femininity' and a rejection of 'hips, stomach and breasts', and ultimately female body functions, suggested in the works of Susan Bordo? Analogies to changing our bodies with changing the 'cut of [our] clothes', and the suggested malleability of the human body are areas I am keen to explore in future works.

Untitled, (2011) thread and plastic

Untitled, (2011) thread and PVA glue

Untitled, (2011) thread and PVA glue

A seminar on Mary Kelly's 'Re-writing Modernist Criticism' today made me consider the ways in which we as artists use our body. Having studied Media, I was intrigued in her application of semiotics and the science of signs to her art work, forcing us to examine what goes without saying, and to "make explicit what one implicitly knows", particularly in relation to the body. Considering the application of signs, I began to consider the use of photographs as indexical signs - implying a previous presence and providing almost a print of that moment. Developing on these theories, I experimented with the pieces below, printing my body onto bed sheets, using printing ink and acrylic paint.

Untitled, (2011) monoprint & watercolour on photographic print

Untitled, (2011) embroidered photograph

Untitled, (2011) collograph print on crocheted wool

Untitled, (2011) collograph print on paper

Untitled, (2011) embroidered polaroid

Untitled, (2011) monoprint & watercolour on photographic print

A selection of recent works, considering ideas of memory, childhood and female genealogy.

Barry Flanagan

Barry Flanagan's latest exhibition 'Early Works 1965-1982' at the Tate Britain focuses upon his interests in materials and sculptural processes, exploring mediums such as cloth, plaster and sand. To me, Flanagan's work is almost like an ongoing experiment into the properties of particular materials, creating an almost alien world, in which anything seems possible., reflecting his interest in 'pataphysics' 'the science of imaginary solutions'. Pieces such as 'Four Casb 2 '67', right, appear almost to be like an absurd landscape created through pillars and rope; he is able to create a very surreal sensation for me as a viewer, in which I feel like I am entering into his own "world", in which we are forced to look at common materials with new eyes, and consider their potential beyond the ordinary.

A trip home to the BALTIC

Though excited to see the 2011 Turner Prize myself, particularly being displayed in my home city of Gateshead, it was a friend of mine who insisted I had to see Karla Black's work as he felt it related well to my own. 'Black's work is often infused with a sense of the processes behind it, processes which can evoke traditional feminine occupations' (Cain, 2011) and 'bridges the experience of tangible matter with the intimacy of memory or the subconscious... suggestion of performance psychologically involves the viewer with the making process, provoking instinctive responses' and the 'lost world of early childhood'. I personally found her work the most powerful of the show - ironic, as it visually it would seem the most muted and delicate. The materials have a very sensual appeal, and the exhibit as a whole a embraces the materiality of sculpture; we are encouraged to walk around it, to view it from different angles, to consider the effects of light on its organic form, to consider our presence in relation to it.


I was lucky enough that simultaneously, an exhibition of new work by Mike Kelley, in collaboration with Michael Smith was being shown in the floor above. Their 'A Voyage of Growth and Discovery' shows a 'pre-lingual man-child', a character developed by Smith named IKKI, attending the Burning Man festival in the Nevada Desert. Shown through a combination of video projections and installations referencing childhood, such as blankets, toys and climbing frames, left. Having previously looked at Kelley's work on childhood and his approach to craft, I found this exhibition an interesting culmination of his ideas, and, similar to Black, shows the effectiveness of playing upon the connotations of certain materials and objects.

Carol Ann Duffy

I was lucky enough to see possibly my favourite poet, Carol Ann Duffy, give a reading of her latest works from a new collection, 'The Bees'; her poetry is hugely influential to me and my practice, with poems such as 'Before You Were Mine' providing strong inspiration for some of my early works. Memory is a strong essence within her new works, with pieces such as 'Premonitions’ seeing the poet imagining the death of her mother as their ‘first’ meeting, with time moving backwards through memories of the time they shared together. However, I felt a particular resonance with her piece 'Water', in which three generations revolve around one image of a cup of water, with thirst linking the poet to both her grandmother and daughter. These ideas of female genealogy are recurrent themes within my own work, and I found it a fascinating concept to consider family history continuing through objects.

Water, Carol Ann Duffy

Your last word was water,

which I poured in a hospice plastic cup, held

to your lips – your small sip, half‑smile, sigh –

then, in the chair beside you,

fell asleep.

Fell asleep for three lost hours,

only to waken, thirsty, hear then see

a magpie warn in a bush outside –

dawn so soon – and swallow from your still-full cup.

Water. The times I'd call as a child

for a drink, till you'd come, sit on the edge

of the bed in the dark, holding my hand,

just as we held hands now and you died.

A good last word.

Nights since I've cried, but gone

to my own child's side with a drink, watched

her gulp it down then sleep. Water.

What a mother brings

through darkness still

to her parched daughter.

Carol Ann Duffy's 'The Bees' is available now from Picador Publishing.

Untitled works, (2011) embroidered photographs

A selection of recent works. I see a lot of Maurizio Anzeri's work in these pieces, whose exhibition at the Baltic I was lucky enough to see earlier this year. I was particularly interested in his ideas regarding photographs; in an interview for Yatzer, Anzeri claimed:

"When we all look at a photograph, we somehow believe that we look at the truth or at some kind of reality but we know that it’s not, It’s just a moment... We all still look at it as if it’s real. It’s trapped in there and it’s like you managed to cast some kind of magic spell on that piece of paper to entrap some kind of reality to use and reuse every time you look at it".

For me the reverse of these pieces was the most interesting aspect - they have allowed me to explore how to visually represent and highlight the process of embroidery, and also the sense of mystery and frustration which I believe is similar to that of recalling memories; the shapes hint at something on the other side which we can't see, something out of our reach...

Also, check here for some amazing 'Stitched Art'!

Long Live Painting

In an age when we are saturated with images from the mass media, the retrospectives of Gerhard Richter and Wilhelm Sasnal, held at the Tate Modern and Whitechapel Gallery respectively, present works which explore the nature of seeing and the way in which we experience the world through looking. Taking photographs, and often images from popular culture, these artists reinvent the image through their choice of media, emphasising materiality of paint and its ability to depict images in an entirely different way to a photograph, as seen in Sasnal's 2007 'Roy Orbison 1', left.

The inclusion of family members in the works was a particular inspiration for my current works, referencing collected family photographs. Sasnal's faded or blank faces in his paintings of family photographs draw us in and add an element of mystery and even frustration; our desire to uncover who these people are allow us as an audience to engage with the works on a level which we may not be able to were they simply family portraits. Richter's photorealist works, such as Betty (1977) For me, Richter simply presents use with surely this image could be achieved through photography? He seems here to almost contradict

Richter's work claims to question the nature of painting as a practice; he ask 'what are the capacities and limits of painting? What is its relationship to photography, and how can we think about its material status' (Dr Mark Godfrey, curator). Nonetheless, I feel certain areas of his work forget this aim - his photo-realist pieces, such as 'Betty' (1977), seemed to simply affirm his skill at painting. I was far more intrigued by his less obvious, ambiguous pieces, in which the application of the paint gave the image a whole new life. In his 'Notes 1990', Richter romanticises the act of painting, and rejects modernisms notions of paintings as flat objects - parts of reality which can now seemingly never be representational, and have thus lost their ability to be profound. Through painting from photographs, both Sasnal and Richter address these issues, creating paintings which can never be of reality. In both shows, I felt a strong sense of optimism - a hopefulness for painting and its impact upon society. Through application, thickness, mark making, these artists are able to hint, suggest, question what the image is conveying to us, and highlights the ability of the painter to transform what at first may seem a straightforward image into a powerful statement.

Untitled (2011) acylic and embroidered thread on appropriated textiles

Grayson Perry

This weekend, I was thrilled to go see Grayson Perry's 'The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman' at the British Museum. In his latest exhibition, Perry shows new works alongside objects made by unknown men and women throughout history from the British Museum’s collection. Through utilising traditional craft features and techniques, the artist here he asks us to believe everything he says or shows is real and "fact", which I feel he does incredibly convincingly and wittily simultaneously - with some works in the collection, it is not until you get close to examine that you notice an image of the infamous Alan Measles, Perry's beloved teddy bear, which for me really highlights his light hearted approve and the sense of fun he injects into his practice. I particularly loved a piece of wall text, in which Perry claims 'part of my role as an artist is similar to that of a shaman or witch doctor. I dress up, I tell stories, give things meaning and make them a bit more significant.' The brilliant BBC Imagine documentary Grayson Perry and the Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman gives further insight into the exhibition, following Perry for more than two years as he creates 'his own imaginary civilisation'.

Grayson Perry's exhibition will be shown at the British Museum until 19th February 2012; definitely not a one to miss!

Untitled (2011) and detail, wool & appropriated textiles

Luis Buñuel, director of the 1967 film 'Belle de Jour', suggested that we are indoctrinated at a young age into life long sexual, social and religious patterns. But how much of our "adult" life is influenced and shaped by our childhood? Do the people, places, objects we are exposed to ingrain certain ideologies and values? Surely giving a little girl a doll so realistic she has to feed and change it is simply setting her up to expect a life as a mother, as explored in a paper published by University of Oxford's 'The Future of Human Reproduction' department in 2009.

I remember as a young girl, I would watch my grandma knit for hours, admiring the beautiful objects she produced. Then, like Mrs Willard's mat in Sylvia Plath's 'The Bell Jar', they would become worn and eventually ruined performing their "function". Perhaps it was these memories which influenced my thoughts on the constraints of motherhood? In his work upon 'The Uncanny', artist Mike Kelley explores childhood toys and the effect which they can have, citing Freud's theory of the sensation of the uncanny. Kelley claims the uncanny to be linked with the 'art' experience; an interaction with an object which is then 'tied to the act of remembering... something long known to us, once very familiar', which I feel is key to the work above. Showing a snapshot of my partner, the unclarity of the image both immortalises and destroys the photograph at the same time. Playing upon the idea of an image or experience being "ingrained", both as fixed in memory and embedded within the fabric, this work questions the value & reliability of memories, relationships and the effects of these upon our being.

Mike Kelley is exhibiting at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art until the 15th January 2012.

Sexual Education; Lacking "Down There"

Sex is a huge part of our lives - worldwide, we have sex 120 million times a day according to the recent 'Sexual Nature' exhibition at the Natural History Museum. So it amazes me at the lack of knowledge about it available to young people. This week, the BBC published a report claiming 'that one in four pupils do not have any sexual and relationship education in school.' I was one of them. Sadly my "sex ed" did not arrive until I was around 15 (by then I had begun having sex), and was part of a PSHRE (Personal Social Health & Religious Education) course, consisting of a lengthy discussion on love, marriage and children. Not wanting either children or a wedding ring, I wondered were I fit in. And what about other teenage girls out their in my position? Feeling biologically destined to, in the words of Betty Friedan 'breed and serve men'? As a society, are we happy to continue filling little girls' heads with ideas of the mysterious essence of "femininity", and to leave them dreaming of babies and housework? What I was even taught about myself biologically was relatively shady - my periods were not explained to me until I approached my mother in tears one wondering why I was bleeding "down there".

Apparently, I was becoming a woman.

So is this what qualifies female? 'Tota mulier in utero'; does it simply come down to the belief woman is a womb? As Germaine Greer comments, little girls are not encouraged to ask questions or explore their genitalia, and consequently are left feeling ashamed, and quite frankly baffled by them! I was told nothing of contraception, and had to seek this information for myself, along with my two best friends, from a local Streetwise Clinic. Teenagers are calling out for better information regarding sex, and a program which covers the apparently forgotten issues of 'sexually transmitted infections, relationship and sexual consent advice or contraception'. Surely teaching only biological functions to teenagers simply reinforces the classic gender stereotyping. Scientists tell us now that our brains are conditioned to be male or female; "The female brain is predominantly hard-wired for empathy. The male brain is predominantly hard-wired for understanding and building systems," claims Professor Simon Baron-Cohen. Does this simply suggest that female "empathy" comes down to the mythical maternal instinct, while the male brain's ability for to take on more functional roles in society allow him to succeed in providing for his dependent family? When did genetics come in to determining gender roles? I feel it is time we consider how and why these social and cultural gender identities are reinforced through generations, and, from a more personal perspective, the damaging effect they have on women such as myself who are made to feel "unfeminine" and alien in society simply through they sexual ideals - because the truth behind gender and sexuality has been hidden under a proverbial fig leaf now for far too long.

For more information on the recent BBC sexual education reports, please see http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/15260571 and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-15255649

Laurel Nakadate at The Zabludowicz Collection

On a routine trawl through The Guardian's online Culture section on Monday, I was happily surprised to come across an interview with performance and video artist Laurel Nakadate; having been to see her latest exhibition at The Zabludowicz Collection at the end of September, I was eager to read what the artist herself thought of the works on show. Nakadate's work plays upon traditional notions of gender, power, relationships and sexuality, using herself and her body very literally within her practice.

"Men just started talking to me. That's how it all began... I told them I was an artist and asked them if they wanted to make something with me. They all said yes and we'd go back to their apartments – either then or another day – and act something out." Nakadate, 2011.
A desire to connect with strangers coupled with an ability to challenge conventional gender relationships makes Nakadate's work incredibly powerful to me. Constantly teetering between hilarious, tragic and unnerving, pieces such as 'Oops!' (2000), and 'Stories' (2005) play upon a sense of voyeurism, whilst presenting her audience with situations in which I found awkward laughter the only way to break the tension.

Though a selection of her photography is on show, I feel she conveys her ideologies far more directly and powerfully through her videos. Pieces such as 'Love Hotel' (2005), and their use of relatively basic video techniques are reminiscent of home videos, and, in the context of this video, home made pornography, playing upon the male gaze
and modes of viewing women. Underlying influences of feminist theory I feel can be seen in works such as 'Exorcism 3 (Dancing in the Desert for Britney)' (2009), in which her erotic dance moves question the focus and role of the female in media throughout Western culture. The highly sexualised use of the artist's body reminds me of Tracey Emin's 'Why I Never Became A Dancer' (1995), a similar exorcism of the standards and moral expectations subjected to women. Similarly, her 'Lessons 1-10' (2002) left, in which she filmed her posing as a life model, subverts the traditional role of the female model in art; here, she is not only challenging the female form in art, but the relationship between spectator and spectacle. While conventionally the feminine subject is passive and subjected to objectification, Nakadate actively asserts herself and her body as a contributor to the work, signally a shift in power, elevating herself above a typical objective viewing.

Though Laurel Nakadate herself claims 'you can never level the playing field when a man and woman are in the same room', for me, she embodies a fierce resilience towards conventional gendered roles. She empowers herself through ownership of her own body, and presents a fresh take upon the feminist "body art" of the 1970s.

For the artist's interview with The Guardian's Eleanor Morgan, please see http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/oct/09/laurel-nakadate-video-performance-artist