I am extremely proud to be the third-year undergraduate student rep for AA2A this year. Better known as Chris, I am a mature, fine art student living and studying in Chester.
Early in my degree studies I found collage a crucible, offering immediacy and an expeditious medium in which to experiment. Recognising that my strengths lie in the analogue, which may be due in part to my age, I am enthusiastic about working in pre-digital formats. My work might be seen as influenced by nostalgia; one of my most vivid childhood memories is of my mother, making flour and water paste, with which I could collage the wrappers of “Penguin” chocolate biscuits.
During the development of my practice I have come to prize the glossy pages of high-end lifestyle magazines, both contemporary and vintage. The concept of appropriation and Dadaist use of the readymade, has merged with collage and often evokes a sense of Pop Art in my work.
Recent strategies have seen me collect pictures from sources including flea markets and charity shops and then respond individually to each piece. Speculation and alternative interpretations lead to modification, often by way of collage, which can sometimes juxtapose the original. However, unlike the Situationist subversions and detournement that I am now researching for dissertation, my work rarely has intentional political messages or motivations.
As I mature past the age of 50, I am becoming aware of the value of recycling and the satisfaction of giving a “thing” a second life, a reflection perhaps of my own reinvention as a student. My emerging practice has provided me with new ways of seeing, not unfamiliar myself, with the phenomena where older people claim to become invisible with their advancing years, parallels might be drawn with my breathing new life into second-hand and appropriated works, which once again become of visual interest.
I am extremely proud to be the third-year undergraduate student rep for AA2A this year. Better known as Chris, I am a mature, fine art student living and studying in Chester.
Early in my degree studies I found collage a crucible, offering immediacy and an expeditious medium in which to experiment. Recognising that my strengths lie in the analogue, which may be due in part to my age, I am enthusiastic about working in pre-digital formats. My work might be seen as influenced by nostalgia; one of my most vivid childhood memories is of my mother, making flour and water paste, with which I could collage the wrappers of “Penguin” chocolate biscuits.
During the development of my practice I have come to prize the glossy pages of high-end lifestyle magazines, both contemporary and vintage. The concept of appropriation and Dadaist use of the readymade, has merged with collage and often evokes a sense of Pop Art in my work.
Recent strategies have seen me collect pictures from sources including flea markets and charity shops and then respond individually to each piece. Speculation and alternative interpretations lead to modification, often by way of collage, which can sometimes juxtapose the original. However, unlike the Situationist subversions and detournement that I am now researching for dissertation, my work rarely has intentional political messages or motivations.
As I mature past the age of 50, I am becoming aware of the value of recycling and the satisfaction of giving a “thing” a second life, a reflection perhaps of my own reinvention as a student. My emerging practice has provided me with new ways of seeing, not unfamiliar myself, with the phenomena where older people claim to become invisible with their advancing years, parallels might be drawn with my breathing new life into second-hand and appropriated works, which once again become of visual interest.
