My Co-ordinates...

Su Blackwell's Art and its Relation to My Own Work...
On her website Su Blackwell makes a statement about the precariousness of the world in which we live and describes its delicate nature as analogous to the fragility of the medium she uses (i.e. books or more specifically, paper).

Paper, much like life is a “delicate, accessible medium” and Su describes her method as an “irreversible, destructive process”. This corresponds to my own work as I also see my work as a destructive process. However, the destruction makes way for the creation of something much bigger…creation. For me, this creation from such a fragile medium reflects the vast reverie of our dreams and experiences. Creation can not exist without an initial destruction

Su describes her work as claustrophobic, hinting that the characters within her work are trapped within the pages of her book until she releases them, this can be seen especially so in her installations ‘While You Were Sleeping’

The paper is literally jumping out from the work, with paper strewn all over the place as if it has escaped with urgency thus creating chaos.

Within an interview Su Blackwell described the reaction she often receives. Whilst viewing her work, people tend to be quiet, only breaking the silence with whispers. This may be due to the medium she works in as books are often on display within libraries, which insist upon silence. My own work, although it also uses books as a medium, seems to arouse something a lot different; amusement and laughter. Perhaps this is due to the fact that Su’s work aligns itself with the idea that the characters she skilfully crafts are three-dimensional, thus they seem much more personal and person-like which may arouse an emotional link between the viewer and the work. For example, in Alice, A Mad Tea Party the characters and the scene itself seem to want to be noticed.

My work however is two-dimensional and as opposed to creating characters, I create new narratives and poetry focusing mainly on wordplay.

This invites my audience to approach my work as if they would a book, putting them in the mindset that knowledge or entertainment will follow. This sets up assumptions which I can then break down. Once my viewer sees the artefacts I have placed before them as books they will then instantaneously collate any information, assumptions and ideas regarding what a book is both outwardly and internally. For example, for me books are sources of knowledge, academia, entertainment, emotion and observation. They can also provide enormous insight into the minds of others, the grand scale of their imagination. Whatever my viewers assumptions about books, they are challenged by the manipulation and transformation I have visited upon each book.



Cara Barer's Art And its Relevance To My Own

Cara's work combines sculpture and photography. She experiments with books in ways which distort the very notion of what a book is. This is what I try to do within my work however using predominately words to do this as opposed to using the book as a whole. Experimentation plays a large part in Cara's work and like Cara experimentation forms the basis of my work. It was through experimentation that I arrived where I did and with further experimentation that I intend to develop it.


At the end of her profile (on her website), Cara makes a final comment about her work; "A final note – No important books have been injured during the making of any of these photographs". This relates to my work due to the value judgements that both our art possesses.

Mike Stilkey's Art and its Revelevance to My Own

Within one of the books I am manipulating, I decided to paint some of the pages. Mike Stilkey doesn't actually paint the pages of books, however he creates imagery on the covers based around their narratives. The images I created were also based on the page their were painted on. For example, I painted the tarot card, The Hanged Man on one of the pages as on the page itself was a conversation about this particular card. However, Mike's work has inspired me to try painting on the covers in the future as I like the look of a 2D image on a 3D object. Stilkey also creates sculptures using books and then uses their form as a canvas, thus mixing sculpture with painting. The effect created is pleasing to the eye and his work possesses an intrigue which I can't quite explain. It's made me think about the ways in which I could develop my work. I feel that sculpture may be the natural form of progression for my work, which might will allow me to move away from working in predominantly 2D. This is something I wish to develop in the future.