AA2A Student Rep

Charlie Alston

Artform:
Mixed media, currently sculpting with wire & wax & found objects
Year:
2022-23
Location:
The Fylde coast
Influences:
Memories, family, fragility
Email:
charlie.t.alston@gmail.com
Social link:
Instagram- @alston_charlie
Project summary:

I am currently studying Fine Art at Blackpool & Fylde College. My creative identity has been evolving throughout this degree. I have a unique style, which has a multi-disciplinary approach, utilising found objects alongside naturally dyed fabric and wire. My work concentrates on memories- particularly familial and life memories, using shoes and footwear as a metaphor for this personal autobiographical journey.

 

I have had a ‘make do and mend’ upbringing which is reflected in my love of found and saved materials. I also love experimenting with home dyes (onions skins, avocado, pomegranate, and rust) staining these found papers, which include teabags, tissue, and chip papers and  thus creating a memory within a memory and referencing the austerity my parents experienced at the end of the second world war and my own youth in the early eighties.

 

I am currently using wire and wax, embedding ‘memories’ (from my father and mother’s lives) held within fabrics and found objects within the home. Some of these shoe sculptures are merged alongside driftwood from my local beach, providing a raw and organic feel.

 

Ultimately, I want to challenge the idea of memory- how it can be a solitary or shared experience, an item touched (leaving a trace of a memory) or a physical item that conjures a memory from the viewer. My work is always attempting to convey to the viewer how memories are layers of hidden information that can be permanent or fragile or distorted or even displaced as time evolves.

I am currently studying Fine Art at Blackpool & Fylde College. My creative identity has been evolving throughout this degree. I have a unique style, which has a multi-disciplinary approach, utilising found objects alongside naturally dyed fabric and wire. My work concentrates on memories- particularly familial and life memories, using shoes and footwear as a metaphor for this personal autobiographical journey.

 

I have had a ‘make do and mend’ upbringing which is reflected in my love of found and saved materials. I also love experimenting with home dyes (onions skins, avocado, pomegranate, and rust) staining these found papers, which include teabags, tissue, and chip papers and  thus creating a memory within a memory and referencing the austerity my parents experienced at the end of the second world war and my own youth in the early eighties.

 

I am currently using wire and wax, embedding ‘memories’ (from my father and mother’s lives) held within fabrics and found objects within the home. Some of these shoe sculptures are merged alongside driftwood from my local beach, providing a raw and organic feel.

 

Ultimately, I want to challenge the idea of memory- how it can be a solitary or shared experience, an item touched (leaving a trace of a memory) or a physical item that conjures a memory from the viewer. My work is always attempting to convey to the viewer how memories are layers of hidden information that can be permanent or fragile or distorted or even displaced as time evolves.

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