STATEMENT

This project aimed to explore and create work that is influenced by death, be it in now outdated religious dogmas or personal reflections on how death affects us all and in different ways. Death is not the easiest topic to choose because a lot of different opinions are casted onto it; take the ‘skull’ for example, perhaps the most iconic relic of death. It can be an extreme image to some, downright morbid to others, while others still embrace it as a reminder of our own mortality, to choose life and live better for knowing that life is short so to make the most of it while we’re here.

 

 Mitchell Watson

Distortion

       Distortion (2014)  16 1/2 in. x 10 1/2 in.

vintage photographs, paint, ink, hessian, on canvas

Unmasking Heath

           Unmasking Heath (2014) 12 in. x 9 in. ( photograph 4 in. x 2 1/2 in.)

                     vintage photograph, paint, ink on canvas

Russian dolls

                                       Russian Dolls (2014)

5 in. x 3 in., 4 1/2 in. x 2 1/2 in., 3 in. x 2 in., 2 in. x 1 in., 1 in. x 1/2 in.

                             wooden nesting dolls, paint, ink

The killing moon

                 The Killing Moon (2014)  13 in. x 7 1/2 in.

     Wooden Box, Wood, twigs, paint, light bulb, paper,

                               skull beads, playdoh

Girl exposed

                        Girl Exposed (2014) 12 in. x 9 in.  paint and ink on canvas.

Hollowed out bible

 

                                            Hollowed Out Bible (2014)  5 1/2 in. x 4 in.
                                                 bible, skull beads, paper, ink

Hollowed out bible

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                         Hollowed Out Bible (2014) 5 1/2 in. x 3 1/2 in.

                                        19c. Bible, crucifix pendant, skull beads, paper

Hollowed out bible

           Hollowed Out Bible (2014) 5 1/2 in. x 3 1/2 in.
           19.c bible, skull beads, crucifix pendant, glue.

Hollowed out bible

 

                                             Hollowed out Bible (2014)  5 1/2 in. x 4 in.
                                19.c bible, skull beads, religious statue, ink, paint, clothing tag.

Consume or die

                        Consume Or Die (2014) 9 in. x 6 in.
 wooden box, paint, manikin head, Jean Paul Gautier aftershave bottle, comb.

Christina's world's ending

                           Christina's World's Ending (2014) 13 in. x 7 1/2 in.
wooden box, various cut outs from well known paintings, paint, bottles, skullbeads,key,
                      bullet shrine, wire, ink, paper. vintage photograph.

The killing moon

  Wood, black paint, twigs, playdoh, skull beads, lightbulb, paper, religious statue

  A piece I made, painted predominately in black spray paint. I wanted to be more abstract. 

I used twigs to create a wood at night- they can be mysterious and haunting places and also isolated. 

Below the woods is the earth underneath with the roots connecting the two sections. I set the skull beads into the 'earth' to convey the dead as isolated, forgotten and many. Also as lonely. 

I used a lightbulb in part to convey the moon, it also has a eye on it which echoes Picasso's 'Guernica' in which 

an all seeing eye/ lightbulb is illuminating nothing - used in this case to symbolise our ignorance of our mortality. 

I also used a little religious statute to convey faith and hope that there is something after death- though it is tarnished by the paint as if the hope is fading. 

Louise Nevelson

  Sky cathedral, 1958, wood painted    black. 

In one of the art history lectures, Leila showed us some work by the artist Louise Nevelson. 

I found it really interesting how, the artist made all pieces in all black. They looked minimalist yet intricate. Assemblage and Abstract. And I remember hearing in the lecture that the artist said that black is a perfect colour, that encompasses all colours. 

you're really lovely, underneath it all

   After making and looking at the idea of revealing bones/ parts of people especially with 'girl exposed' I thought of Russian rolls, how the layers reveal another doll until the smallest one has been uncovered. 

Again, I wanted to be more light hearted and not make a dark macbre piece, 

What better than what is traditionally a children's toy? Also how I've spoken about mis conception and interpretations of death, a child's type thing seems quite apt as it strips it back to the basics. 

Revealing the person done to the skeleton and then the last doll being a doll, suggesting something after death whatever your belief. 

As I said about a traditional children's toy I wanted to simplify the depictions especially on the muscle layer doll and the skeleton, without being too graphic.

Unmasking Heath

From the previous piece of 'girl exposed' 

And the Elmo hood playing cards, I decided to take a similar path combing the two ideas to make this. 

I painted the 'skull' pink to create contrast with the sepia tones of the photograph and to make it look playful and more contemporary. 

Elmo hood

 

Elmo Hood is a London based artist whose art made out of playing cards is reasonably simple but intuitive and clever.

His use of playing cards has made me rethink how I can use the photographs I have to manipulate them and change them.

Girl exposed

  After creating the distorted photographs it made me feel that the defaced ones were exposing the untouched ones of not just death, but what's underneath. 

This led me to create this piece. Surreal, a girl lifting up the top half of her face as if tipping a cap to reveal her skull. 

I did this for a few reasons.

One, to show the mortality of us all underneath - sort of the beauty is skin deep saying. 

Two, to show the juxtaposition between life and death in a light hearted way.. I've felt as if some of my work has been a bit dark and wanted to break away from that for a bit - yellow background. 

Three, often in society we see women as objects, project sexual desires onto them 

And I felt making the woman not wear a lot of clothing - revealing quite a bust aswell - whilst revealing her skull creates 

a feeling that un veiling flesh is nothing unveiling what is within us is more important. 

Distortion

I created this by stitching together photographs and alternating them to create a distortion of the duality between life and death that all photographs are have frozen within them. Captured moments frozen in time. 

                      Detail.

                      Detail.

    The top photograph in the piece all the faces have been defaced with skulls. 

This was to represent that everyone will eventually die, I felt using family photos was apt to depict this. 

For the rest I mixed defaced photos with un defaced photos to convey the distortion. 

Compositions

Using different compositions of how to arrange the photographs. 

Also using photographs that I haven't drawn over fusing them with ones that I have - creating a distortion between life and death and also the duality of the two.

The bottom photograph above reminds me of the advertising billboards that turn to reveal different advertisements by the rotational properties of it. As if it was stuck between advertisements in a sort of frozen limbo that photographs sort of are, captured moments frozen in time.