Previous AA2A Artist

Maggie Ayres

Year:
2007-08
Project summary:

There comes a point in your life when you realise everything you’ve done has been shaped by the boxes your parents, teachers, peers, cultural and social pressures have squeezed you into. At that point you can make yourself as comfortable as possible, or you can try and tear free. At the core of all my work is the idea of how the outer world constrains and contorts our emotions and responses. Deepest thoughts and memories become obscured and skewed by the expectations and desires of outside influences. Layer upon layer of experiences are there to be discovered and revealed. In my artwork I create numerous layers of colour, texture, light and contrast using a mix of media including hand painted silks, applied fibres, photographic images, dyed velvets, stitching and found objects such as driftwood and sea-glass. I am fascinated by the notion of hidden worlds and the points of tension where we can glimpse them momentarily: revelations of truths obscured by convention; the point when a flower unfurls to expose a world of seeds and possibilities within; glancing through a window to reveal another’s reality. With these thoughts in mind I am presently working on a series of pieces, which should result in a large sculptural work based on the notion of 'emotional cocooning'. The idea for this project came originally from a piece of writing by my husband, Kim Ayres, entitled 'The Bandaged Woman' and my artwork 'Bound'. This focuses on the process of wrapping and layering materials, representing different emotional constraints and encasements

 

'Window'
hand painted silk & stitched layers laid into contoured canvas - 92 x 92cm