The In-Between: June 2014

A sea memory, I am quite sure

That it's a memory of the sea.

Not a cloud in the sky, a sharp edged horizon,

Waves surging in endlessly from beyond.

When I saw that vista, it was as if something in my infant

Consciousness awakened from a long dream.

I looked around at my hands and feet.

And then I seemed to be looking down on myself from above.

As if I were there merged into the seascape.

Hiroshi Sugimoto, 'Noh Such thing as Time.' 2002

An unusual beach find of what I believe is a scapular, a religious object Catholics wear as protection and to remind them to pray. It's a sad little object in its own way. Maybe it fell out of a sailors pocket, or someone tossed it out to sea having no more need or belief in it. Even though water got inside the laminated pocket it is perfectly intact. I am not particularly religious but I like to see this find as a good omen although I started to get a bit freaked out when I found this shell with the cross on it that afternoon. It was hard to miss it…

“Omens were all very well, but sometimes it would help if people just wrote things down.”

― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

I know this is very late and the show has been and gone but here are some images from my graduate show. Finally!
I would like to think that through the thick and thin of it my work turned out to be a success.
The work from across all the disciplines was really good and diverse this year. This graduate show was definitely something for everyone involved in to be proud of.
Below are some photos of my installation. The final efforts of my exploration into ceramics can be seen as well. Putting it all together was exhausting and I still don't think I am over it.
The video pieces of feral mother and daughter were played on small screens placed inside the large central logs. I had to glue each bit of bark, which was removed before cutting into the wood, back around the screens in an effort to merge it into the wood. But really when do you see telly screens growing in trees? I had smaller logs placed around the larger ones to help balance out the space. The logs have my ceramic cones, Kodama's, placed on them. I was amazed they all survived the show. There was only three nails hammered in the wood underneath the cones to give some help to stop them sliding if bumped, but really a wayward handbag or errant child could have easily taken them out with one swift movement. I am very impressed at peoples carefulness. Although I accepted early on that some would not survive the show, I still couldn't take being in the room when a small group of people were walking amongst them. I was also very surprised at how many people lifted them up to find the sound piece's.
Note to some, although it is tempting to touch art, this is really not a good idea in a gallery as you may have to be faced down by some irate gallery assistant. Trust me, they always know the touchers and they will see you before you see them! Take it from me, I have tried..… ahem…. and have also been the irate gallery assistant…

On the walls I tried to hang the ceramic photos in an order I thought would make sense. I grouped the images together forming a narrative. On the right wall are the round ceramic photos, featuring close-ups of flowers and images from my garden. I was lucky enough to have three of these pieces sell.

Its funny, the space I was in for the graduate show was my first year painting studio. Its were I spent many a painful hour pushing myself to the very edge in order to secure myself in the painting department, which I eventually did in the end. Thankfully I saw sense and transferred over to print, by sense I mean crippling self doubt. The experience in that first year painting studio made me resent painting and I haven't painted outside the sketchbook since, even then it has only been a hand full of times over the past few years. Hopefully now I can make amends with and remove the wedge that was placed between me and the paintbrush.
This space was were I started and somehow it seems appropriate that this were I end my four year journey.

Of course it goes without saying that without our technician Pam, Gemma, the artist in residence who so graciously gave her time, and my tutors Des and Kieran, things wouldn't have been hung, wired, cut, or stayed intact in the kiln! I am forever grateful for the endless help and patience and really and truly could not have done it without their help and skills in the finals weeks leading up to the show.
Thank you the Caelan Bristow for lending me the screens, you were a life saver.
Last but not least special thanks to my tutor Breda for her guidance and support through out the year, to the lovely ladies in the library, Anne and Stephanie for always smiling and putting up with my insane and unending amount of book requests. And of course my friends and parents for their patience and unending support and confidence in my work.

Let this not be an ending but a beginning.

Artists Statement;

My work draws from dreams and memories linking the spiritual, human and animal worlds together with an underlining narrative of innocence and the uncanny. The work arises from the self, drawing from my past, while trying to take control of the present.

‘Nor could I ever after see the world as I had known it. Mixed with the present scene was always a little of the past and a little of the future, and every once-familiar object loomed alien in the new perspective brought by my widened sight. From then on I walked in a fantastic dream of unknown and half-known shapes; and with each new gateway crossed, the less plainly could I recognise the things of the narrow sphere to which I had so long been bound.’ –H.P. Lovecraft, The Book

A lot of this work was greatly inspired by the writer Terry Pratchett and his portrayal of women as witches. His character Granny Weatherwax is someone to aspire to. If you haven't read his books then you are missing out on a good laugh!

For more work please see my web-site, www.emilyrobards.com