These are the things that hold me here
(a house, a vessel, a shell, a ring)
Master of Fine Arts
2003

For this Master of Arts project, I created a series of collections based around the symbol of the house, the body and memory objects. How we manifest our ideas of self is reflected in the artefacts we surround ourselves with. By creating spaces for private objects, I explored how one experiences one's own physicality. By exploring the relationship of jewellery to the body, I investigated how objects form touchstones of memory and conduits to an individual's sensory and emotional experience.  By looking at the house as a metaphor for the body, I examined the dialectics of inside and out, of surface and interior.

This body of work followed an investigation into issues of corporeality found in texts by Luce Irigaray, Hélène Cixous and Michel Foucault, amongst others. I also followed this research with my reading of the work of Gaston Bachelard and the cultural theory of Trinh T. Minh-Ha. The artistic practices of Louise Bourgeois, Kiki Smith, and Annette Messager have provided me with examples of artists that use the body and autobiography as an integral part of their practice.

I investigated linear and solid structures that were three-dimensional. These structures (a house, a vessel, a box, a casket) or 'houses' were constructed from various materials, wire, metal, wood, plaster and clay. By locating collected and fabricated 'treasured' objects within and without the house structure, I explored issues concerning space, the body and memory. The isolation and regrouping of these objects became an act of memory.