arteles_catalogue_2014

EXPLORING ”NATURE”
Feeling wrapped up in the boundless blanket of countryside
landscapes at Arteles, I primarily began to absorb the immense
beauty of nature and naturally started to consider themes
concerned with the human condition and our relationship to the
natural and built environment. With the use of latex I began to create
small replicas of natural habitats, documenting my experiences
of texture, colour and location. By replicating parts of the natural
landscape in which my body inhabited and by removing them from
their original context to be displayed in a constructed order, I begin
to question the status of each environment and the perceptions
of ‘self’ within the natural world. This documentative process was
merely a starting point before entry into a collaboration with fellow
resident JiHyun Youn, a Korean dancer and performance artist.
JiHyun Youn and I found common ground in our interest of exploring
the human ‘body’ as a material object and so began playing with
the passive body in space. Our collaborative exploration naturally
surfaced in the form of performance and photography, through
which we gradually shift to the use of daily objects as a substitute
to the human body. By using objects we begin exploring the word
‘body’ in a wider context in order to lose any associations connected
to the passive body, such as the weight of death. Ironically in doing
so, this weight is regained, exposing our inescapable attachment
to death, bringing us full circle.