Artist's Response - Group Work - Research
We were asked to respond to a fellow students work as an artists response. I responded to Oumaima's work which was about loss of childhood, overcoming traumatic events and the difficult transition to adulthood. Her work was very moving and it involved a soft toy she had created, sat among items from her past. I find work which involves past history, narratives of everyday life and melancholy all fit with my own practice.
My response was slightly more upbeat in the fact I used a narrative from my life at the moment. My 11 year old daughter has recently updated her bedroom in a more teenage fashion. She is becoming more grown up and had decided that her soft toy collection no longer had a place in her room / life. Her actual words were 'they are not my aesthetic'. This inspired me to record this moment. It was funny and sad at the same time, the end of an era for me but exciting days ahead for her. Each toy has a story, when and where it was bought or received and each one was a favourite for a while. Theses toys are no longer in the limelight and I wanted to give them a last chance to shine.
I decide to photograph the toys on her new bedding before they went into the loft. I used my iphone to create the shot. I have wanted to use the toys for while because we have a huge amount in the house and it seemed like an opportunity to work with multiples. The power of the multiple!
The artists I had seen use soft toys before were Mark Dion, Charlemagne Palestine and Laurie Simmons. I'm inspired by Mark Dion's work in general and his work called 'Survival of the Cutest (who gets on the Ark?)' (1990) using the soft toys worked well. Illustrating the changes we need to make to save the environment and drawing on the toy aspect as it's for the future of our children. Charlemagne Palestine works with vast numbers of toys which creates the impact (I don't have this many toys in the house!).
I would love to print these images as huge, 2 metre high glossy prints. I'm not sure my iphone photographs would allow this resolution. I love the work of American artists Laurie Simmons and her high gloss prints and her use of everyday objects really inspires my work. She is not afraid of creating 'mum art' and happily uses her life, family and the domestic to project her narrative.
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