Migrant Material - Connecting matter with being
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Exhibition
July 16 - August 17 2017 PV July 16 11-1pm at Gallery in the Garden A complete departure from the usual finely rendered mimetic portraits, this body of work has been material and process led and maybe a turning point from realism to a more conceptual approach of questioning who we are. Late 2015 I was asked to be resident artist for 12 months at Gallery in the Garden, Great Saling, in the heart of the Essex Countryside. An opportunity with time and space to respond visually and creatively to the garden and its surrounding land. Rather than be inspired by what could be seen, I was more interested in the unseen, the forgotten, the discarded or the ignored. So I dug beneath the lush lawn on a journey of discovery, instigating a rethinking and questioning of material and making, geology and displacement. |
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The act of finding, handling and scrutinising every exhumed object raised questions of how and why these materials got here.
Geological shifts and human intervention brought thoughts of farming, industry, settlements, displacement, mortality and consumerism.
Ultimately, a cycle of shifting matter, sometimes slow, sometimes rapid, but as I discovered, also inherently connected with not only us but the logical, the emotive - the immaterial. This subterranean excavation helped me to consider the importance of our need to connect directly with the waste and raw materials of our planet.
This project released me from the constraints of the measured accuracy of realism and impersonating life, I was free to experiment, discover and question creating totally new work and possibly a new way of thinking.
Migrant Material - Connecting Matter With Being
Geological shifts and human intervention brought thoughts of farming, industry, settlements, displacement, mortality and consumerism.
Ultimately, a cycle of shifting matter, sometimes slow, sometimes rapid, but as I discovered, also inherently connected with not only us but the logical, the emotive - the immaterial. This subterranean excavation helped me to consider the importance of our need to connect directly with the waste and raw materials of our planet.
This project released me from the constraints of the measured accuracy of realism and impersonating life, I was free to experiment, discover and question creating totally new work and possibly a new way of thinking.
Migrant Material - Connecting Matter With Being
Press
Migrant Material - Connecting Matter With Being
The resulting body of work is a departure from Billie’s life-like figurative work. Close examination of the exhumed sub terrain material led to questions of our relationship with and connections to the earth and its contents; its changing climates and shifting terrain.
In 2015 Billie was asked to be resident artist here at Gallery in the Garden. Presented here, for the first time, is a body of work in response to the time Billie spent here.
There was little visual material that inspired me at first. I needed to delve deeper, deeper than the beautiful greenery and vastness of the laying landscape – so I dug beneath it.
Extracts from Billie’s sketchbook diary:
Day 1 – The Dig, 28th August 2015
The spade slices through the Verdi Gris with ease, through the epidermis of the earth into the dark damp organic matter below.
A neat geometric jigsaw of turf is displaced a short distance away, to be later returned – patched and repaired.
Exposing the earth below the carpet of rabbit nibbled lawn; I discover my first object – man made, a black plastic thing that once had some controlled purpose.
The first few inches of topsoil give no clues to its history other than it was once a well dug garden perhaps – no stones, no nails – nothing.
Six inches down the aggregate begins to loom. Using my makeshift archaeological tools of wallpaper scrapers (from my painting and decorating days) and a washing-up brush, I begin to reveal earths’ treasures.
This simple physical action of placing my hands beneath the soft green surface of the earth, in pursuit of a hidden past was exhilarating. Away from the illuminated screens of a now 2 dimensional digital world of mass information – I had my hands in the earth – feeling, seeing and smelling – my senses being gently stimulated.
‘And whoever must be a creator in good and evil,
verily, he must first be an annihilator and break values.
Thus the highest evil belongs to the highest goodness:
but this is creative’
Nietzsche
Migrant Material - Connecting Matter With Being
The resulting body of work is a departure from Billie’s life-like figurative work. Close examination of the exhumed sub terrain material led to questions of our relationship with and connections to the earth and its contents; its changing climates and shifting terrain.
In 2015 Billie was asked to be resident artist here at Gallery in the Garden. Presented here, for the first time, is a body of work in response to the time Billie spent here.
There was little visual material that inspired me at first. I needed to delve deeper, deeper than the beautiful greenery and vastness of the laying landscape – so I dug beneath it.
Extracts from Billie’s sketchbook diary:
Day 1 – The Dig, 28th August 2015
The spade slices through the Verdi Gris with ease, through the epidermis of the earth into the dark damp organic matter below.
A neat geometric jigsaw of turf is displaced a short distance away, to be later returned – patched and repaired.
Exposing the earth below the carpet of rabbit nibbled lawn; I discover my first object – man made, a black plastic thing that once had some controlled purpose.
The first few inches of topsoil give no clues to its history other than it was once a well dug garden perhaps – no stones, no nails – nothing.
Six inches down the aggregate begins to loom. Using my makeshift archaeological tools of wallpaper scrapers (from my painting and decorating days) and a washing-up brush, I begin to reveal earths’ treasures.
This simple physical action of placing my hands beneath the soft green surface of the earth, in pursuit of a hidden past was exhilarating. Away from the illuminated screens of a now 2 dimensional digital world of mass information – I had my hands in the earth – feeling, seeing and smelling – my senses being gently stimulated.
‘And whoever must be a creator in good and evil,
verily, he must first be an annihilator and break values.
Thus the highest evil belongs to the highest goodness:
but this is creative’
Nietzsche
Bourgeoisie Nuggets
Exhumed clinker, gold powder, gold leaf, epoxy
This figurative work has been assembled using all the exhumed clinker fragments from my dig in the garden. Clinker is a porous stony residue, usually from furnaces. It is by-product of an industrial process; these little nuggets represent financial gain to the industrial revolutionists. Coating the pitted surface in gold powder and gold leaf informs us of wealth but beneath the enriched surface is also a story of hard labour and suffering.
Exhumed clinker, gold powder, gold leaf, epoxy
This figurative work has been assembled using all the exhumed clinker fragments from my dig in the garden. Clinker is a porous stony residue, usually from furnaces. It is by-product of an industrial process; these little nuggets represent financial gain to the industrial revolutionists. Coating the pitted surface in gold powder and gold leaf informs us of wealth but beneath the enriched surface is also a story of hard labour and suffering.
Bricks and Mortar
Exhumed historic brick fragments, emulsion, stainless steel
These bricks were earth before they were buildings. At some point in time they became part of the earth again. Now exhumed and suspended as a narrative to their history and their significance to property ownership and the current housing crisis. The colours represent the ‘coating’ of wealth and consumerism, a façade perhaps.
