Visual Arts & Photography
17th May 2023
By Billie
18/05/23 Overall, the key themes of my project have been reciprocity & kinship between human and non-human entities, in other words themes of Animism. This has been inspired predominantly by texts such as ‘Braiding Sweetgrass’ by Robin Wall Kimmerer and ‘Spell of the Sensuous’ by David Abram. Another (more subtle) theme that I found during
17th May 2023
By Billie
17/05/23 It was really nice to finally get my work into the space, though I’m slightly concerned that there’s almost too much space for the pieces that I have… All of sudden they look so small. (But perhaps it just takes a minute to get used too.) 18/05/23 I decided to move the hanging tapestry
17th May 2023
By Billie
15/05/23 I decided that I wanted to naturally dye some cotton fabric to lay beneath my ceramic vessels. After watching a few YouTube tutorials online, I started prepping the fabric and boiling some organic spirulina & matcha powder in the hopes I could dye my cotton a pale green colour.
17th May 2023
By Billie
14/05/23 I took my painting and equipment back home as this week because we’ve started prepping the studio for install. I managed to finish it this morning and I’m really proud how it’s turned out – especially as I’ve never painted portraiture, it was a really daunting challenge for me. Some of the gold leaf
17th May 2023
By Billie
27/04/23 I got my first fired and glazed vessel back and I absolutely love how it’s turned out. I initially tied the bark onto the vase with string but it was too thick/didn’t look right so I used brown cotton thread instead. Because I have a fair amount of glaze left, I
17th May 2023
By Billie
20/04/23 Updates on the progress of my painting the last few weeks… I’m really liking the direction it’s going in.
16th May 2023
By Billie
6/04/23 I’m constantly inspired by the books I’m reading. Especially since my dissertation research I’ve come across many quotes that have inspired and informed my practice (which I have displayed below.) / Robin Wall Kimmerer ‘Braiding Sweetgrass’ / John Fowles ‘The tree’ / Martin Shaw ‘Courting The Wild twin’
16th May 2023
By Billie
06/04/23 I’ve spent the past couple of weeks in the ceramic studio working on the next two vessels – I feel like I’m starting to get used to/more confident at hand building. I’m using stoneware for these pieces as I ran out of earthenware – though I’m hoping
16th May 2023
By Billie
23/03/23 After several months of (severe) blank canvas fear… I decided to research artists who use linen canvas and came across the work of Cristina Troufa. I loved that she leaves a lot of the linen showing through, and style in which she painted the blue circles I will definitely adopt when painting mine (behind
16th May 2023
By Billie
17/03/23 This time round, I was incredibly happy getting my glaze results back! The colours and textures were exactly how I hoped they would turn out – I especially love the craters and noticed they appear where both glazes were heavily layered. This means
16th May 2023
By Billie
06/03/23 For my second ceramic piece I didn’t design anything concrete and wanted to let my intuition guide me instead. Still taking inspiration from the photography book of seeds – this was my end result which I was pleased with.
15th May 2023
By Billie
09/02/23 Recently I’ve been inspired by a NOWNESS in residence episode featuring Ricardo Bofill. Though it was about architecture and design (seemingly unrelated to my project) – I loved that he had turned an old cement factory into an oasis sensitive to beauty, emotion and ultimately housing a totally different functionality. In a lot of ways
15th May 2023
By Billie
24/02/23 Yesterday we went to the Bloomberg New Contemporaries exhibition at South London Gallery. The piece I was most drawn towards was ‘Sights of lavender’ by Gabriel Kidd, I liked the variety/assortment of materials, sketches, mixed media etc. It was reaffirming to me as sometimes I question whether using so much mixed media
Continue Reading “15 / South London Gallery & Leonor Antunes”
15th May 2023
By Billie
03/02/23 After getting my glaze test’s back I definitely wasn’t expecting the results that I got… I thought the iridescent effect was beautiful yet it was almost too metallic, in a way that clashes with the earthenware rather than complement it. I also realised the subtle differences in colour/texture where
8th May 2023
By Billie
16/12/22 I see Kinfolk magazine as almost a baby sister to Cereal magazine, and though it isn’t my go-to I often check their website, social media, etc. As some of the photography is really inspiring. I found this stunning image (one on the left) and knew I’d love to use it for a reference for
8th May 2023
By Billie
24/11/22 Lately I’ve been inspired by the work of Magdalena Abakanowicz and Cecilia Vicuña. Tate Modern is currently showcasing both artists, who intriguingly both work with natural fabrics to create large-scale sculptures. Cecilia Vicuña’s ‘Brain Forest’ invites viewers to contemplate ghost forests and the destruction of biodiversity.
Continue Reading “09 / Magdalena Abakanowicz & Cecilia Vicuña”
2nd May 2023
By Billie
19/11/22 Since getting hold of some hessian, string, mdf and some found/scrap material I’ve been experimenting how to merge these materials including my cotton paper paintings. I designed and made the first sculpture using hessian, mdf and ceramic spine segments (that I made last year.) Initially I thought I could
2nd May 2023
By Billie
10/11/22 I came across Rita Bernstein’s work on instagram and I absolutely loved her mixed media paintings, especially due to her mark making. The paint almost looks like accidental smudging or stains left on a discarded parchment…. Or the textured markings on the wall when you peel back layers of wallpaper in an old house.
2nd May 2023
By Billie
04/11/22 I have four volumes of Cereal that I often refer back to for inspiration. An article that stood out to me this time in vol.20 was a photo essay ‘Upon Nature’s Seat’ by Hasse Nielsen & Nathalie Schwer. I loved the styling and thought these images might be good painting references…
1st May 2023
By Billie
21/10/22 I think that really getting specific about the materiality of my work will ground my practice a lot. As right now the experimentation I’ve been doing has been concept-lead & (heavily) mixed media. I made a mood board of all the natural materials that first came to mind. I’ve already been using cotton rag
1st May 2023
By Billie
13/10/22 Continuing from last week, I painted abstract fragments layered with fine liner, using pink, green and brown. I did this to get an idea of shape, form, and colour. I also dyed another piece of chiffon
1st May 2023
By Billie
06/10/22 Today I made a mood board & mind-map to outline the direction I intend to steer this project. I feel the key connections between these images are: Warmth Delicacy Fairly silent… (perhaps there is an underlying warm hum?) Natural Form Fragments/Layers Earthy colour palette Meeting or mix of human & nature (non-human) I liked
17th April 2023
By Billie
02/03/23 I’ve decided that I want to create a series of vessels in the organic/asymmetrical style I experimented with when I was last in the ceramics workshop. Despite the fact that Wabi Sabi is centred around tea-ceremonies and therefore various pots, tea cups, bowls etc. are an integral aspect – I’ve never actually contemplated the
27th January 2023
By Billie
26/01/23 I recently discovered the ancient Japanese concept of Wabi-Sabi through reading a book I picked up at Whitechapel gallery. The principles of Wabi-Sabi are completely aligned with my approach toward my project this year. Though the philosophy is comparable to Romanticism, it was a more spiritual/ambiguous depth – and the resulting artistic outcomes are
Continue Reading “12 / Wabi-Sabi & Embracing loss of control”
27th January 2023
By Billie
10/12/22 During the ‘Strange Clay’ Exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, I discovered the work of Brie Ruais. Her pieces really stood out to me out of all the works showcased there. The rugged yet intricate details of the huge shards drew me in and I was reminded of how much glazes can transform ceramics.
11th October 2022
By Billie
27/10/22 Knowing that I would like to start focusing on ceramics (mainly porcelain) I went to see ‘Ceramic Art London’ back in June 2022. I wanted to re-visit the images I took for some inspiration and direction. I really like the more abstract forms rather than traditional/accurately proportioned pieces. I remember being drawn to one
11th October 2022
By Billie
03/10/22 I want to approach this project continuing from my line of thought last year, exploring the relationship between human and non-human. Especially taking inspiration from Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception: that the experience of perception is interactive, participatory, and a reciprocal interplay between the perceiver and the perceived. And that our spontaneous, pre-conceptual experience yields
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