Engage Artist

Victoria Walters

Year:
2015-16
Influences:
Rosie Leventon
Project summary:

I am a researcher in Visual Culture and developing artist; to date my written work has focused largely on the practice of German 20th Century artist Joseph Beuys.  My current visual arts practice is in sculptural installation and focuses on the development of a survival aesthetics, with a particular emphasis on climate change.  I am trying to develop a visual language that communicates the urgency of climate-related issues without obscuring the often complex politics behind them.

For the AA2A project, I plan to explore the two meanings of the term “groundswell” through studio practice, potentially leading to a room-based installation that expresses the double sense of the term.  The first, “a sea swell brought about by distant stormy weather or an earthquake”, the second, “a rapid spontaneous growth (e.g. of political opinion)” (Longman, 1991, p.698).  I plan to test different approaches to building a swell in the floor of an exhibition space by creating a number of maquettes for false floors which may use ply and recycled wooden floorboards that are manipulated using bentwood techniques, soaking and/or distressing, but may also incorporate other materials. 

At a later stage, if it is possible to locate an appropriate space for the work, I would like to explore the possibility of co-creation with others, potentially students, if they are interested, partly as a means to stimulate dialogue.  Although at present I envisage that the audience will be able to walk safely on what appear to be level parts of the surface, I am keen to initiate a kind of meditative pause between the experience of the viewer and the event of the swell so that the installation is not uniformly catastrophic, and may even contain an element of humour.

I am a researcher in Visual Culture and developing artist; to date my written work has focused largely on the practice of German 20th Century artist Joseph Beuys.  My current visual arts practice is in sculptural installation and focuses on the development of a survival aesthetics, with a particular emphasis on climate change.  I am trying to develop a visual language that communicates the urgency of climate-related issues without obscuring the often complex politics behind them.

For the AA2A project, I plan to explore the two meanings of the term “groundswell” through studio practice, potentially leading to a room-based installation that expresses the double sense of the term.  The first, “a sea swell brought about by distant stormy weather or an earthquake”, the second, “a rapid spontaneous growth (e.g. of political opinion)” (Longman, 1991, p.698).  I plan to test different approaches to building a swell in the floor of an exhibition space by creating a number of maquettes for false floors which may use ply and recycled wooden floorboards that are manipulated using bentwood techniques, soaking and/or distressing, but may also incorporate other materials. 

At a later stage, if it is possible to locate an appropriate space for the work, I would like to explore the possibility of co-creation with others, potentially students, if they are interested, partly as a means to stimulate dialogue.  Although at present I envisage that the audience will be able to walk safely on what appear to be level parts of the surface, I am keen to initiate a kind of meditative pause between the experience of the viewer and the event of the swell so that the installation is not uniformly catastrophic, and may even contain an element of humour.

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