Foundation Degree Fine Art Final year site-specific project in partnership with Maidstone Museum Introduction Victoria Casillas Megan Cole Jane Figueiredo Chris Hewson Lizzie Hill Chrissie Hunt Chris Jayasuriya Kathryn Lane Tina Lewis Paula Morgan Sarah Spence Elena Stewart www.westkent.ac.uk/maidstonemuseum Photography by Nadia Needham
Introduction The Foundation Degree students of West Kent College have been teaming up with Maidstone Museum since 2008, as part of their vocational and professional Fine Art Practice studies. The aim is to give students a work based learning opportunity of collaborating with the Museum and its staff. Working to the specifications of the Museum staff, the students are required to produce artworks influenced by the myriad of ideas generated by the collections, history and even the fabric of the buildings themselves. This year, the students have created individual pieces of work that are a direct response to the Museum s brief of Curioser and Curioser, whilst also incorporating their own art practice. These are to be exhibited within the larger exhibition of Maidstone Museum s colour themed cabinets of curiosity. The students and myself would like to thank the Museum staff for all their support and enthusiasm, and to Nadia Needham for design and photography, enabling us to produce this catalogue. Jane Hamilton Course Tutor For further information on all courses offered at the College, visit: www.westkent.ac.uk To go directly to our Art & Design university courses, please go to: www.westkent.ac.uk/university-courses-in-kent/he-art-and-design To contact a course tutor, please email: samuelherbert@westkent.ac.uk or janehamilton@westkent.ac.uk For Maidstone Museum, go to: www.museum.maidstone.gov.uk
Victoria Casillas El Seny La Sensatez (Common Sense) The encased poem reflects on life, decisions and consequences. The textile smocking techniques and costumes from the archive helped me find a link to my own practice of drawing with wire. I find that embroidering conveys a symbolism of storytelling. Transcripts of memories and anecdotes transport the viewer into different worlds; rich in culture, with different political views, religion or language. I like to express within my art a diversity of opinions from a complex pluralist society. The purpose of encasing the writing in resin is to blur the words and to symbolise thoughts, opinions, perceptions, and how the meaning might be twisted, unclear or manipulated. victoria@casillas.co.uk
Megan Cole Croc Socks I was inspired by the decay and preservation of the mummified body of Tah-Kush. Further research into ancient Egyptian society revealed how similar some of their concerns are to today s modern society. The ceramic crocodile shoe alludes to these obsessions, as do the surreal images on the glass panels.
Jane Figueiredo What happened Mother? This work was influenced by the Victorian Pregnancy Corset found in the costume department of the Museum. Through my work, I hope to provide the audience with strong emotive feelings of repulsion and empathy for the wearers, all at the same time. Personally, I can only describe it as, a vicious visual representation, that will hopefully deliver you back to a time of industrial revolution, work houses and disturbing values of inequality between the sexes. A seemingly innocent contraption that was accepted as normal dress wear for all females right from puberty onwards and became responsible for a vast number of deaths and deformities.
Chris Hewson Memory and Space Memory: the faculty of retaining and reviving events and impressions or of recognising previous experiences. I had the pleasure of staying in a traditional Washitsu guest room in Yokohama with a Japanese family. The recollected memories of a culture of modern, natural and ancient inspired me to create my own box/room. I am currently exploring abandoned buildings with photography. I thus arrived at installing them inside the box with a new motive. I would like the audience to capture their own response to forgotten slots in time. Even abandoned spaces have their place. Chrishewson71@gmail.com
Lizzie Hill Threads To wander around Maidstone Museum is to inhabit a world of threads, from the hangman s rope to a parachute cord. All threads within the museum have their own story to tell, some are known, some only guessed at, some may even have been fabricated along the way. My work seeks to reflect and explore the richness of these collected narratives. I m interested in how these threads connect and affect the visitor, provoking new thoughts, conversations and understanding. These threads will not be contained by glass cabinets, they are gently weaving themselves into the lives and experience of those who look and engage.
Chrissie Hunt Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer While touring the exhibits in the museum, I came across one that I had a very strong connection with: hop farming. It brought back many happy childhood memories. We lived next door to a hop farm and every year, with my large family, I would join the throng of colourful characters to harvest the hops. As children, too young to work, we spent carefree days playing among the hop bines with our favourite toys, mine being a very special second-hand doll s pram. I was inspired by the pram to create a simple copper wire framework which was to illustrate a simple easy-going time.
Chris Jayasuriya Worth One s Weight in Gold Inspired by Kintsugi, a centuries-old Japanese technique that repairs broken pottery, I decided to apply and mimic this procedure onto a small-scale acrylic painting with the help of a gold relief outliner. If repaired pottery can be displayed, why not repaired paintings as well? There are a number of Japanese philosophies on which the Kintsugi method is based. These apply the philosophy of the acceptance of change as well as embracing the beauty in the imperfect. I wanted my subject matter to be a reflection on these particular philosophies; therefore my considered choice came down to the image of a weighing scale machine.
Kathryn Lane Bear Emotion What if our feelings could be preserved, taxidermied, personified? My interest in the natural history section of the museum and the insects in the cabinets in the stores has inspired my piece. This mixed media piece is made of clay, copper, latex and denim. This is my personified personal demon. My representation of the mental struggle within, this lovable rogue is that part of myself I have learned to live with. Despite its ugliness, it is part of me. Grotesque yet cute. Do you want to pull him close or push him away?
Tina-Marie Lewis Infestation My inspiration for this piece has come from the Archives Collection at the Museum, specifically the preservation and intricate detail of the insect displays. I have used a range of wires, glass pieces and handmade wooden shadow boxes in the making of my piece; I specifically chose these materials in order to re-create the details of the contents of the archives. I found that wire represented the details and shapes of the insects perfectly. This created the most interesting shadows. The shadowbox itself creates a sense of entrapment.
Paula Morgan Mask of Life I was drawn to the strong markings on the ceremonial masks within the Pacific Islands Collection in the Museum. This took me back to my travels in New Zealand many years ago, where I had been intersted in the facial tattoos of the Maori people and the representation of their status and achievements within the tribe. These are also reminiscent of the Celts woad face painting. My interest in organic materials led me to cast a face in resin, incorporating plant material as an inlaid tattoo.
Sarah Spence Maid of Stone Maid of Stone is representative of what is perceived to be the most beautiful, beguiling, tempting and corrupting thing of all throughout time: the female form. This remains a constant in the history of art as the ultimate muse. She is bound to metal grids, in her micro world like meat on a slab. I wanted to address gender stereotypes and inequalities using a figure from a painting found in the archive of this museum. Just one of many relics, passive and silenced in cabinets and vaults, and we, the spectator, are fundamental to the conspiracy of their containment.
Elena Stewart Dormant I was inspired by the diverse manner in which the Museum contains heads within its collections. Crafted from plaster, I have created an abstract sculpture of a head whilst replicating organic materials; something that resembles bone and rock simultaneously. I am interested in creating sculptures that are in-between living and inanimate to inflict confusion and questions in the audiences mind as to what they are looking at. The sculpture s unique form is unfamiliar to the eye so therefore is a puzzle, which can only be solved by looking beyond the initial lifeless exterior.