Summative Post: Documentation

Artist Statement

Inspired by a passion for animal rights, my mirror paintings intend to portray confusion and isolation felt by the animals used in laboratory testing.

Many people are naïve to the use of animals in this way in modern society. My work tries to keep the issue alive by portraying this problem in a manner which is not too repulsive or offensive, so as not to deter the viewer whilst maintaining an essence of unease.

I hope to encourage the audience to reflect on how they would feel by imagining themselves in this sterile and lonely environment.

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Since the beginning of the year, my work has developed and evolved quite far from its origins whilst maintaining many techniques.

Having been working on my dissertation, I began the year creating collage pieces with an animal welfare theme; relating to my dissertation. I was researching lots of advertising techniques, and I wanted to employ some of these techniques into my own work. Dissertation research is definitely one of the most influencing factors of my work.
Post #1: https://lounomeat.wordpress.com/2014/10/20/term-1-subject-animal-collage/

Another important aspect of my work was both display and interactivity. I particularly wanted to make my work interactive, as advertising research shows it makes an advert more memorable. As my work is essentially an advert for animal welfare, I thought this would be both appropriate and effective.
Post #2: https://lounomeat.wordpress.com/2014/10/28/term-1-subject-collage-display/

I started working some small ideas alongside the collage; one being the destruction and distortion of soft toys. I used these sculptural pieces to create ‘Warped Scans’ which went on to influence my paintings; following through with the surrounding blackness which reflects isolation.
Post #3: https://lounomeat.wordpress.com/2014/11/14/term-1-subject-warped-scans-with-exploited-soft-toys/

Having decided over the Christmas period that I was fed up of collage and soft toys – these mediums not feeling like ‘me’ – I thought about what I wanted to present in the exhibition, and realised that I wanted to paint.
Post #4: https://lounomeat.wordpress.com/2015/02/17/term-2-subject-mirror-painting/

Finally, I chose to only paint monkeys rather than other animals, as they are more ‘human-like’, and this evolved to become my exhibition piece.
Post #5: https://lounomeat.wordpress.com/2015/03/23/term-2-mirror-monkeys/

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