Research images from Hereford Museum resource centre

Research: A Confrontation with the Familiar at Hereford Museum and Resources Centre

Research statement;
I am undertaking a research project focused on the collections at Hereford Museum and Resource Centre. I have been spending time looking in detail at artefacts in store and on display with the aim to produce artwork inspired by my research which will be presented in the form of a multimedia installation and exhibition at Hereford Museum and Art Gallery in July 2010. I am creating visual links and contrasts with the museum collection and my own collecting activity; perhaps reflecting traditional display techniques but also producing visual alternatives. I hope to successfully engage and create a dialogue with visitors and staff alike.
I have been interested the methods in which objects are recorded, documented and stored have found inspiration to develop my own response.

Bricolage: a confrontation with the familiar

'The materials of the bricoleur are as poor as his freedom of manoeuvre is limited. His universe of instruments and rites of his game are always to make do with what ever is at hand.' Claude Levi Strauss; The Savage Mind.
I always make do with whatever is at hand. My subject matter is taken from the external world around me whose elements and imagery, its bits and pieces are given a new uncharacteristic twist and change of aspect to take on new meaning.
As a bricoleur I perhaps have a special freedom but also a lack of freedom as what I collect is restricted by a lack of control reliant on a chance encounter; my materials are the debris of society.
The multifaceted nature of my installations include material and cultural references. I attempt to lift the objects I collect out of their physical existence and incorporate them into the spiritual realm of shamanist practices.