Crit#14, @ASC Studios Bow, 19 September 2010
Graduate, BA Fine Art, Chelsea College of Art
My art is organic and colourful, or often as white as Limestone. I am hugely inspired by nature, particularly textures of stones, shells, pods and fruits. I am fascinated by all kinds of seeds as well. Often when I’m making art, I travel in my mind in to depths of seas and lakes and I try to recreate what I see. I sculpt cocoons and draw never seen before creatures. My studio is ever changing installation of hanging lotus leaves and wall art based on microbiology. I have a little museum shelf with samples of nature I’ve picked up on holidays or just walking, and I always return to those for inspiration.
I express my thoughts and ideas through the medium of sculpture.
www.garandavis.com
MA Photography, University of Westminster
An old series of work was based on a very traumatic period in my life fourteen years ago when I was barely able to walk for a year due to severe nerve damage. I used photography to objectify experiences and hope over a period of 18 months, producing pictures which showed a vessel, which replaced my body, holding both emotions and the physical supports which I relied on to survive daily life. The images were supported by a diary in text form that described in a very matter of fact way, what was going on. This work was shown at Photofusion, Watershed, Focal Point Gallery and at The National Museum of Film and Photography in Bradford. ||Although appearing well, I still require daily medication and regular hospital visits. This apparent invisibility continues to interest me. Over the last 14 years I have had numerous scans, x-rays and small operations. My feet and ankles are the root of my physical stability which was damaged so badly before to the point where I could barely walk across a room without support.
Rachel’s textile artworks are a celebration of colour and pattern. She creates instinctive colour statements which reference specific locations or experiences, evoking perceptions of time, feeling and place.
Inspired by her local river in London, travels in Latin America, the shorelines of Britain and the endless repetition of life under the sea, she is particularly fascinated by moments of revelation and transition – conscious understanding of a new way of seeing things – changing light; changing colour; changing reality.
Graduate, BA Hons Photography, Victoria College of Arts, Melbourne.
I am doing a project that is looking at movement of the body. I am interested in bodily language – and the interaction and non lingual communication between people – building relationships of sorts. Of these relationships, I am interested in the familial relation – brother / sister, sister / sister, brother / brother. I am also interested in ways of documentation. I have based a lot of my work in photography first, and then moved on to re-imagine the work in different mediums. I am particularly interested in taking live drawing as my next step forward, removing the photograph from the process.