Final Resolution

Final resolution of the individual and the social

Rationale

Initially the main concept of this project came from looking at the relationship between my Grandmother and myself. The key focus throughout all the work has been a Willow Pattern dinner set, comprising of one teapot, five teacups, 5 saucers, one sugar bowl, twelve bowls, six side plates, six small plates and six dinner plates. The dinner set was a gift many years ago, to me it was a representation of the close, intimate relationship we had, as a child I couldn't wait for the day I could carefully unwrap all the pieces and use the. Over time and following events this relationship became nonexistent, as did the adoration for the dinner set, it now reminds me of the resentment I hold for my Grandmother. All i want to do with the set now is destroy it, in any way possible, removing all associated feelings and memories. For years now I have been trying to think of ways to create artwork with the dinner set, I finally felt I was ready to do so.

I began with researching the Willow Pattern design and how the crockery has been made over the years, I came across myths, poems and stories relating back to the images, I thought these could be interesting to combine with my work so recorded them. To initiate the practical side I started to draw images from within the Willow Pattern, along with the forms of the crockery. I later translated theses images into monoprints, combining the text from the myths and associated words.

From the initial idea I knew I wanted to destroy the crockery, before this I considered ways to photograph the set; I looked at Cornelia Parker, Andy Goldsworthy and Richard Long for inspiration. The main idea was to create geometric forms within natural environments; I took them out to Otley Chevin and set out making forms within the grass and leaves. The contrast in these images is very striking, the natural tones of the woods compared to the bright whites and blues. I also briefly looked into the idea of British culture and its association with tea, to convey this I photographed the crockery sat on top of a Union Jack, this was a tangent that didn’t really lead anywhere.

Starting out with the crockery made any work instantly sculptural, which was something I had intended to do. I explored different materials to hold broken pieces together, filler, masking tape, polyfilla foam, the way I patched things back together was not an attempt to repair, rather haphazardly ramming things together, forcing them to have interactions when they clearly did not fit together. The forms created were not important how they looked, it was the process of reforming them. The most used material became polyfilla foam, I have always wanted to use in within my work, but never had the need until this brief. I used it within every possibility, I liked its instant sculptural qualities, creating mass volume within minutes, and how it was able to hold things together with its sticky malleable texture. Within art it is classed as a pretty unconventional material, but through researching I have found many artists use it as a key sculptural material. I experimented with a few different materials and taking casts of the foam, but nothing quite made the results the foam did. Returning to the foam I played around with simple and more complex forms, I decided that the more simple ones were more effective, creating a greater contrast the two materials of foam and crockery.

I decided to present a series of the simple sculptures as I thought they were too simplistic to show on their own. I chose to present them on a long thin plinth at ankle height, I liked the idea that people would have to bend down to take a closer look at the pieces, they are very tactile pieces, the contrast in materials and weight makes you want to pick them up and explore.