Against the White-Cube
All photographs by Megan Ajioka, with the aid of Jasmine Forbes
Ana Yarza
Domestic Dust Tile (2020)
Approx 20cmx12cmx2cm
Cellulose insulation fibre
This artwork is the product of domestic environment exploration. The cellulose fibre is a material commonly used for house insulation. By casting it into a tile, which is normally made for decorating purposes, the artwork questions the concepts of decorative and functional elements of the house. Placing it in the kitchen accents it's identity of wholly domestic being.
Otto Gobey
Cabbage Cldd Structure (2020)
Approx 10cmx10cmx15cm
Wood, cabbage, small nails
Cabbage clad structure is a slowly changing organic coating on a steady base. It plays with ideas of vernacular architecture and material choices in a ever more homogenised environment. Placing it in the larder with other foods plays on it's use of organic materials and accents it's intimate size. It almost becomes part of a family with the other pieces of food.
Jasmine Forbes and the Toxoplasma Gonii in my brain
Scratch Post (2020)
Approx 30cmx15cm
Foam, plaser, wool, clay, batteries, wires, motor
Scratch post’ is sculpture with a rotary element, echoing ATP synthase, and also the construction of the home around pets. It is a collaborative project with me and the Toxoplasma Gondii parasites (passed through cats and other domestic animals) that live in the artists brain. Adding absurdity to the piece by putting it in a pot, on top of a stove, reflects the crazy that is associated with the parasite and the Crazy Cat Lady stereotype.
Moz Hodnett
Moz's Blobs (2020)
Dimensions Variable
Crocheted Wool
These blobs use the accumulation of wool strong to become bodies and beings in their own right. They are formed from the material without a identity projected on them. By placing these beings in the fridge they interact with fully-identifiable items on the shelves to accent their abstractness. They are bodies that take over somewhere they simultaneous don't and do belong in.
Florence Hargreaves
Connectors (2020)
Dimensions Variable
Modroc, wire, clay slip, mesh piping
Two trumpet like shapes connected with mesh piping. Inspired by natural forms and embodied in a way to show projection, communication and conversation. By placing one on the intercom phone, and the other up the stairs on the shelf and virtual conversation is created between two spaces. The artwork brings together two individual domestic spaces and gives them a relationship.
Sophie Templeton
Dripping Zone (2020)
59.4cmx84.1cm
Paint, ink, Pickle juice, herbs
Expressive painting using assorted media in order to create movement. This piece is a sort of emotional dump of the artist's brain. It is made as a quick, frustrated and emotive piece. By exhibiting it on the stairwell it takes on the authority of a piece of decorative art that might exist in the home. There is a tension between what domestic art should be, and what this piece is.
Ana Yarza
Glass and Metal Sculpture (2020)
30cmx20cmx5cm (self-standing)
Metal, glass, glass enamel, copper foil, lead free solder
Sculpture resulting from material, formal and technical experimentation. It has no infused or direct meaning, so why is put on a plinth? The formal presentation contradicts the playful and experimental nature of the piece, and the nature of the exhibition. It questions the authority a piece of art gains when it is put on a pedestal.
Sophie Templeton
Patched (2020)
Approx 70cmx90cm
Ink, file dividers
Patched sketch of a distorted body, introducing colour and the opportunity to displace elements of the body. The fragments of the body create grid structure making it a whole piece, but when viewed through the staircase, it is disrupted again. There is a constant pulling together and pulling apart of the body
Megan Ajioka
We all live in skin (2020)
Dimensions variable
Cardboard, masking tape, cling film, acrylic paint, latex
We all live in skin is a collection of flesh houses. They play with the idea of the body in the home, and the home in the body. They are delicate, childlike yet so grotesque. An uncomfortable contradiction. By placing them on the stairs they gain a childlike quality of a child playing with toy houses. It is an uncomfortable association.
Celeste John-Wood
Balancing Act (2020)
Approx 50cm x 50cm x 80cm
Thread, found materials, acrylic paint
This artwork came out of reflecting on my experience of managing relationships and family dynamics in the domestic space over lockdown. The mobile format itself is inspired by there being a baby born on my street during quarantine, and how strange it felt to me for there to be a new creature waking up to such a chaotic time. It is a mobile that belongs hanging over a bed.
Sophie Templeton
Limp Limbs (2020)
Approx 50cmx18cmx15cm
Clay
Sculpted hand in natural position with sleevelike growth in a disembodied manner and dislocated foot with adjoining muscular calf. By putting them in the shower they gain a clinical and horror movie-esque feel. There is also a contradiction between the material (clay) and the water in the shower which would degrade it.
body video exported
Megan Ajioka
Choreography (2020)
Dimensions Variable
Digital Video of artist's body
This artwork uses video and zoom to explore the relationship between flesh, limb, body and person. Utilising it's 'hypnotic' nature, the video is projected opposite the sofa, allowing viewers to sit back and emerge themselves in the video. The act of watching the video in this domestic setting mirrors the mundane activity of watching tv at home.