Studio

  Please enjoy the gallery view of selected artworks. Students and staff from the school of Fine Art at University for the Creative Arts have responded to the challenges and difficult questions being posed at the COP 26 conference in Glasgow this month. The works will be 'live streamed' into the conference next Wednesday 10th November.  A diverse selection of pieces include sculpture, photography, performance, film and a sound work fills the auditory space. It is an interesting and thought provoking experience, the curation opens up dialogue between many of the works, after months of viewing art only 'online' to see physical works in the space is exciting and real! I am delighted to have my proposal included which comprises a triptych of collages entitled 'Ghost in the Machine', to read about the concept and thought process behind the work please see previous post.  Coming up for Air is currently on in the James Hockey Gallery, remotely live streamed next Wednes...

  Coming UP for AIR Proposal. 2021 - COP26    https://ukcop26.org/   Working Title: Ghost in the Machine. 2021. Please see attached visual files. This work has come from our recent collage project – working with found imagery and experimenting with the direct photocopying of plants. Combining the natural world elements alongside the image of the lone man ‘at work’ the pressure applied to the white flower through the photocopier echoed by the white overall worn by the protagonist. This photocopying process formed strange shadows which recalled the imagery associated with the ghostly or ephemeral - notions of disappearance of species. This was combined with the symbol of ‘Extinction Rebellion’ ‘Ghost in the Machine’ is the British philosopher Gilbert Ryle’s description of Rene Descartes mind body dualism. Ryle introduced the phrase in ‘The Concept of the Mind’ [1946] to highlight the view of Descartes and others that mental and physical activity occur sim...

  Work included in a new publication. Very excited to have the three works included in the physical publication of the on-line curation which came about during the first lock down in 2020 as a result of the global pandemic.  Works were invited and curated by Susan Francis. 'Inspired by Gaston Bachelard's house of reverie, it's walls were built through the artists imagination and as each week passed the floor plan became more defined, although it existed only momentarily in virtual space. Susan Francis  For more details: https://www.instagram.com/houseboundart/    

 New short film 'Relational Relatable' created during 2020 Pandemic - now projecting live at CAS studio artists summer showcase.   PRESS RELEASE   Relational Relatable – Short Film Julia Keenan Created during the Global Pandemic 2020/21   Intention: the film is contextualised as an existential fable, with a melancholic base note. Alone in an incomprehensible world, despite the apocalypse looming, finding some care in the absurd. We are in isolation together, there is some comfort to be gleaned from that.   The Narrative moves through a series of phases each with its own mood and protagonists. The shorter introduction setting the scene – the main body of content and finally the conclusion. The experience evolves through real and imagined scenarios, combining physical drawings with digital elements, dream like narrative and Disneyesque conclusion.   The hope was to create something which considers the myriad of emotions experienced global...

 Musings on a new work in progress - working title 'Relational Relatable'  Air, Food, Drink, Shelter, Warmth, Sleep, Clothing, Reproduction.  Short Film. Intention: the film is contextualised as an existential fable, with a melancholic base note, we are alone in an incomprehensible world, but despite the apocalypse lurking around the corner, there is some care to be found in the absurd. We are alone together, and there is some comfort to be gleaned from that. I have been researching 'Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in relation to the inequalities that have been revealed by the current Pandemic crisis. #universalbasicincome #socialgroupings #basicneeds  The film moves through a series of phases each one with its own mood and protagonists. The shorter introduction setting the scene – the main body of content and finally the conclusion. The narrative evolves through real and imagined scenarios, combining physical drawings with digital elements.  Hoping to create someth...

  Film still from a new thing I am working on. Intention: the film is contextualised as an existential fable with a melancholic base note. We are suspended in an incomprehensible world but despite the apocalypse lurking in the shadows there is some care to be found in the absurd.  

  The Last Show on Earth - 2020 is a fledgling curatorial project which has evolved from a position of lock down. T.L.S.O.E. exists in a physical space but it is also an idea. In lock down state we a re required to adjust our expectations of how we interact with art objects and consider the distinction between experiencing art on the flat screen vs. the 3D presence of an art object. We will be asking the viewer to investigate these artworks as flattened 3D images on a screen creating a play between paintings, drawings, photographs and sculptures. Small works are invited and arrive by post, these are curated into the 'show' conversations between the works and practitioners will be documented and uploaded onto a dedicated channel as 'PODS'. the intention is to continue collaboration and hope to expand ideas around existing practice even in isolation.  

 'Out of the copier, no longer separate from other things, I am now limitless. The essential elementary self is gone, evaporated into a vigorous plurality of interactions.  I discharge myself, time and time again in a discontinuous flow - a passage of impossible states leaping into successive configurations. The boundaries have dissolved between self and other, this is the threshold of representation not quite real, not exactly alive.' Helen Chadwick