Wood for the trees 2011
Guest ARTIST:
Trish Campbell
Carpenters Tools (2009)
Solvent printed fabric banner
My connection to wood comes from very early on watching my father build, he was a brilliant carpenter, cabinet maker, concrete worker, you name it, he could do it. As there were so many of us kids, we were often only allowed to watch Dad work and not allowed to touch anything. Dad’s many tools were off limits to us as they were the tools of his trade but also very dangerous when in the wrong hands. When I had the opportunity to study art, I discovered an unwavering and decided need to make. Constructing things is what I do, but it is invariably in any material other than wood! Discovering the physical qualities and versatility of acrylic was my answer to construction, as I lacked the skills of working with wood. Also, my mother was a talented dress maker, so in me you have the marriage of both parents skill. What emerges is a feminine take on construction with a painterly aspect that makes use of the reflective and transparent properties of acrylic.
7 daze (2011)
Light installation with fluorescent lights and customised colour banding
My on-going examination of our daily life takes a glance at our position as autonomous individuals. The collective conscience that resides in my house in the form of the internet, online gaming using the play station network, Facebook, texting, school laptops etc is like a present but invisible entity, causing disruption at all times of day and night. Watching my children connect with their online life and how they are evolving a virtual, multitasking mentality is it seems at the expense of the tactile and present habitation of life so important to humans. Trying to get them engaged in family life is a challenge that all parents I talk with are facing. Their relationships and decisions are operating on a many-to-many basis where choices are arrived at in a click and we as parents are powerless to intervene or control other than using the very tools of the system we are battling. Parenting against this collective conscience and mass intrusion is one of the biggest challenges we face as parents and we cannot ask our own parents for advice as it is outside of their paradigm.