Vacant, not empty, 2012, photographic construction, side angle Taking the influence of spatial and in particular architectural relationships on the individual within the private realm of the home as a starting point, Alanna Lawley constructs temporary, representational environments that investigate how deliberately fragmented spaces can generate a feeling of the Uncanny, resulting in experiences of disassociation, anxiety and isolation.  “Vacant, not empty, 2012”, a site specific photographic construction for the exhibition, Architecture as Human Nature, Berlin, 2012, positioned a photograph of the inside of an entirely sealed container at the back of a recess where one would expect to see the real space. Exploring the idea of the physicality of…

“Of the Past out Future Speaks” “Once Borrowed Now Lost” “The Unsinkable Sell Out” triptych from the ‘Gaian Follicles Series.’ Hair Artwork by ©Asher Jay 2012 www.asherjay.com Art can encompass a diverse range of disciplines, and the products born of those specialties. The renaissance definition of the term did not differentiate between creative pursuits and the sciences, and it underscored the overlap between acquired skill and inherent talent. In the modern world however, our need to categorize has shadowed cultural evolution by imposing silos of growth upon creativity, preventing individuals from adopting organic interdisciplinary learning curves, ultimately causing us to lose sight of interdependent relationships. Several academic institutions are now…

Awe Inspiring Female Artists We live in a patriarchal society, that is a fact. That the art world is a man’s world is also a fact. However, since the 60’s, corresponding with the so called second rise of the feminist movement, the Feminist art movement has brought more visibility to women within art history and art practice. The effects of the Feminist art movement can still be felt today with female artists who empower themselves by unapologetically visually representing the female experience through their work. Here are three of my favourite female artists of all time.   Renee Cox Renee Cox, a Jamaican American mixed media artist is described in her…

Shorts On Sustainability, four animated narratives on four interrelated ecological issues. Video URL We come from a can-do generation of seemingly endless choices and possibilities. We are told that we can achieve anything we set our minds to, that we can sculpt the impossible into the possible, for as Adidas so eloquently campaigned, “impossible is nothing.” Whilst this proactive credo for life is intended in a positive light, over time it has mutated to incorporate instant gratification, so now not only are we churning vats of the impossible into the possible, but we are doing it with a short term reward system in mind! This has led to the belief…

“In traditional landscapes the productions of man, his constructions in particular, surrendered themselves progressively to nature in the form of the ruin. […] There is nothing of the sort in the contemporary city where objects, if they don’t disappear all in one go, as if by magic, are instead relegated to obsolescence, a bit like the living dead who endlessly haunt the landscape preventing it rom ever becoming peaceful again.”[1] Where the ruin slowly decaying in the landscape was valued by Romantic viewers, these modern buildings – which are no longer perceived to have a ‘use’ – are no longer tolerated. Abandoned modern buildings are frequently cleared away before nature…

“…ruins possess the attraction of decay and death, and to enter them is to venture into darkness and the possibilities of confronting that which is repressed. These pleasures are of a vicarious engagement with fear and a confrontation with the unspeakable and one’s own vulnerability and mortality.”[1] Tim Edensor, Industrial Ruins: Space, Aesthetics and Materiality The word ‘ruin’ has its origins in the idea of falling and is associated with falling stones.[2] It is a word that conjures up for us images of classical buildings in decay – fragments of the crumbled abbeys and castles of the British countryside. Very rarely do we encounter these kinds of ruins in contemporary…