Critical Evaluation:

My focus and concerns at the beginning of the course were generally fluid and open with  my general interests and awareness in culture and society dictating initial work plans and themes. These themes often stemmed from my personal experiences as a woman in a male-dominated society, encompassing roles, pressures, and attributes specific to my gender. Additionally, I was drawn to themes of time, loss, the hidden, and the forgotten, fuelled by a continuous passion for material practice. My goal was to delve into these themes, integrating them into all aspects of my future work while seeking an original voice for my artistic expression.

The development I’ve observed in my practice has been the result of intensive research and inquiry the course has required. Historical references, increased awareness of like-minded artists, and insights from various theories have broadened my perspective and diversified my approach and practice.

My ‘wow’ moment occurred during my exploration of the historical patriarchal dominance in the art world. This exploration was further amplified by Katy Hessel’s book ‘The Story of Art – WITHOUT MEN’ (2022), which shed light on the significant gaps in the recognition and development of female artists, emphasising the overarching influence of the male gaze. It exposed key artists from the 1st wave feminist movement through to the 4^th. It was here that I felt a connection and  desire to explore this narrative further examining how it would play out and intersect in direct relation to my own life and practice. This has formed the context of most of my work themes concerned with ‘femaleness’, mental health, the domestic and home.

In my daily life—balancing roles as an artist, mother, wife, worker, and student—I endured the mundane yet essential chores and tasks of domesticity. Laundry being part of this routine of work. This domestic ritual , produced an astonishing amount of waste, layers of fibres and fluff from washed clothes incorporating the skin and hair from the people that wore them . The ‘machine detritus’ carried a forensic history of daily life, its continual cycle of production was religiously collected and reimagined by myself. It was an ideal metaphor to represent complex issues surrounding domestic life and the female experience, reflecting the repetition, boredom, depression, and anxiety that often accompany domestic and cultural responsibilities.

Experimentation and manipulation of the found object are key to informing my practice and I was excited to explore this new material. My passion for material enquiry has been the ideal tool for my chosen line of enquiry allowing me to connect with female  hidden histories, their muffled voices and silenced emotions.

This ‘ machine detritus ‘became a central focus of my experimentation. Inspired by artists like Louise Bourgeois, Doris Salcedo, Mary Kelly, Marta Rosler, Karla Black, and Catherine Bertola, who all engaged deeply with material practice to convey emotion and visceral meaning. These artists, known for their powerful use of materials to address hidden histories and feminist themes, influenced my practice and encouraged me to allow the materials ‘speak’, sharing narratives, material empowerment and material performance.

The knowledge has also offered me the confidence to place myself within some of the performative aspects of the work, namely in photographing the work in pertinent and site specific environments. Perhaps it will be this aspect of my work that will enable a site specific public space for my work to be shown?   I would like to continue to investigate hushed issues of the female in conjunction with  discarded or forgotten materials. The engagement with the artwork can be further illuminated and amplified when placed or photographed in pedestrian and normalised environments.

My current body of work now takes on a number of forms, mainly 3D and often tactile. I will encourage this ‘tactile’ engagement wishing the viewer to experience the work  it at deeper sensory levels . My participation in the Art Trail 2024 demonstrated the public’s desire to touch art work in order to experience and understand it more comprehensively, an aspect of art engagement so often denied at galleries. My material practice will continue to be experimental working with the traditional mediums of charcoal and drawing alongside  crafting techniques, sculpture and re-imagined found objects.

Reviews of previous critical reflections showed a desire to up-scale up my works and this did indeed led to the creation of a larger work in my final piece edit. It seems to evoke more viewer reaction and enquiry and holds a positive dominance in the room. The continued the physical visibility of my work will play a crucial role as it , serves both literal and metaphorical purposes in my narratives. Looking back, early concerns and themes remain relevant and engaging to my practice but I feel I have a stronger knowledge base and context to underpin and feed them from.

Female theorists  such as Barad, Haraway, Grosz, and Butler, have been vital to me in order to  support the critical investigation into material practices, specifically in relation to  female artists. Their discoveries have been crucial in fulfilling academic markers in my research.  Overall it has allowed  a more comprehensive exploration into gender, identity, and the entanglement of materiality and discourse. Unpicking and unravelling their theories alongside artworks offered me a broader context and meaning to be ingested and inspired by. I am confident all my future artwork will have an underlying connection to the thought provoking theories of our current Anthropocene.

Going forward without the pressure or confines of a degree I hope to experience a greater sense of freedom with my practice and am excited to study a MFA in a ‘red brick’ institution in order to experience an immersive creative environment, greater access to machines and materials, my peers and further opportunities to exhibit  and collaborate. More importantly, I now feel better equipped to explore additional platforms that can foster my ideas concerning material practice, ‘femaleness’ and its significance in the narrative of female artistry.