WALLS, II

My research into the movement of peoples as a result of war and crises left me feeling with the need to respond in some way. I have tried to emulate some of the disorientation, claustrophobia and unease. In Walls, II I have re-used the elements of the original piece and built an enclosed space around them with high curved walls faced in a white fabric. The space becomes increasingly constricted curving round to a narrow exit, through this design I hoped to demonstrate to my audiences some of the difficulties felt by those fleeing their country in search of a safe place to call home. 

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My work has since moved on from this style of content as I now try and avoid representation, particularly through the use of the figure. I made this decision as I realised I did not want to reinterpret the stories of others as they are not my stories to manipulate through material. I instead choose to focus on comparable relations between my own application of crises, chaos and order on materials and objects and the application of these forces in social and political realms and try to pick out the parallels and relationships between these two separate phenomenological fields. At the end of this point in my practice I found myself with questions about chaotic and ordering forces, about the affect of crisis on a system and the subsequent reaction of boundaries and flows on peoples, capital and ideas. 

 

Film by Samuel A. Johnson