Private View - Thursday 12th May 2011

The private view for the Mix as Feels exhibition, held on May 12th was well attended. Many staff and students from the Arts University College Bournemouth came along to view the many interesting art works on offer, as well as family and friends of the six female artists that are exhibiting in this unusual and exciting exhibition, held annually at The Lighthouse Theatre, for the AUCB. Many of the guests showed their appreciation by adding comments to the visitor’s book and on individual artist’s websites. Viewers were met with stimulating and thought provoking pieces of contemporary conceptual art, abstract paintings and a video installation. The evening led to lively discussion around the works, and the artists all agreed it was a successful event. The group “Mix As Feels” are so pleased with the outcome that they are planning to organise another exhibition in the future. The exhibition continues to run until June 2nd and viewers can hear and read explanations of the works using Smart phone technology put in place by artist Jill Clark.

Marianne Moggridge

I explore the relationship between self and object, and am interested in the emergence of the subconscious and inheritance of memory; I make contemporary pieces within a historical traditional framework that contain allegorical messages. My work questions belief systems, truth and myth. I am particularly interested in the use of cultural spaces and how work that is exhibited outside of the gallery space and put into sacred spaces may be met by viewers.

I express poetical visual language that brings a playful approach to some of the more spiritual and religious themes that run throughout my work.

My sculptures open up dark areas of our collective consciousness and confront anxieties, as well as being tempered by humour. The iconographies are drawn from many different sources, including Christianity, art history and mythical legends and dreams, without being reducible to a single source or meaning.

I collect or use existing objects already owned. I live with the objects for a while and consider their qualities and develop a relationship between myself and singular or group of objects and they begin to relate to each other. My work intends to ask the viewer to consider their ownership and importance of objects, in particular the temporal aspect of material things and how objects affect our memory recall.

I photograph the objects using lighting techniques that go on to alter the work further to evoke an atmosphere.

www.mariannemoggridge.com

Diane Chipchase

Bio Art is a new direction in Contemporary Art that is influencing my current thinking. It manipulates the processes of life by coaching biomaterials into specific shapes and behaviours. I am also interested in the field of Biosemiotics, the codes and communications that exist between living things, and wondering if this could increase to a co-operation between live and inanimate objects.

Examples of my previous work include growing grass in a metal filing cabinet, the drawers of which were then closed at intervals resulting in the death of the grass in a graduated process, as a representation of the layers of memory and its loss. Also I have trained ivy to grow up an internal wall in unnatural directions creating designs reminiscent of its sculptural forebears.

By creating a tangible object, that is tactile and evocative, I attempt to provoke an emotional response from the viewer as they engage with it. Whilst incorporating natural products and processes in what I do, the juxtaposition of the natural and man-made worlds and the potential symbiotic relationship between the two is a source of inspiration for me.
http://www.dianechipchase.com/

Yvonne Lockhart

My works have a nostalgic, quotidian to them, based on a thrifty but ecstatic up bringing, memories mixed together with visual artistic influences, these elements constantly contribute, to my slightly surreal creative ideas.

I like to employ textiles & crafts, along with a splattering of autobiographical gendered issues, in a light hearted, playful way. I take an assemblage of familiar, mundane objects and transform them into realistic proportioned, reminiscent installations, that l am happy to co-habit with.

With this innovative combination, I hope my work, conveys my pathway, from initial light bulb moment, to exhibition piece.

Pats van Dam

Growing up in Amsterdam, always surrounded by people, I developed a fascination for behaviour, values, morals and the perception of right and wrongs, fair and unfair in the world. Many of my paintings are based around fashion as to me the fashion industry resembles quite a few things in society I feel uncomfortable with, making important amongst others consumerism, capitalism and beauty.

Through my paintings I like to comment on social issues that occupy my thoughts. I try to achieve this with portraiture, mainly in oil on canvas, using bold colours and satire.
http://www.patsvandam.com/

Gillian Goodridge

Art is the demonstration that the ordinary is extraordinary, Amedee Ozenfant

My inspiration: everyday life. My passion: art.

I question the traditional distinction between the realms of art and everyday life by blurring the boundary between these realms through the re-presentation of readymades, assisted readymades and everyday, commonplace experiences.

I transform everyday objects by applying simple interventions in form and/or presentation, changing their status from commonplace objects to philosophical art objects. By shifting the context in which the viewer encounters these objects, I aim to turn the previously banal into the exceptional and unexpected.

Gillian Goodridge 2011
http://www.gilliangoodridge.co.uk

Jill Clark

'Abstract Conversations'

I am an abstract artist and I create paintings that are meant to leave room, if wanted, for very different and individual interpretations.
    
My method includes mixing chance and choice in an attempt to get unique and out of the ordinary outcomes and I use the special qualities of oil paint to help produce the complex surface detail that I require.
 
For this exhibition I have been inspired to paint the visual equivalent of conversations.  I build up the layers and structures that represent the questions, descriptions, explanations, statements and all the elements of a conversation that lead on from one another.  In the paintings featured here I have used particular colours and forms to express how I observe close members of my family, a young woman, a young man and a mature man, talking about themselves.

http://www.jillclarkartist.com