portfolio | Abrookshaw

working on my first thoughts on the theme of development for exhibition I made a physical version of my drawing, thoughts and research of light and travel. producing new works working with sculptures from the previous term and them working together. discussion with Gillian and what the frame means, why it is white.. to disappear. using a stripper pole I like the humour and space body-ness of this. I am questioning the use of fishing line and its cliche. can it be forgotten? constantly thinking of the white pubes art bingo. significance of materials with ideas of gravity and curation, suspending research sculptures on a frame produced 2021/2022

"muddiness", trying to move further from the clean capitalist aesthetic, working with my salt material in various tones and shapes to portray muddy space body.

producing 'space bodies' on a "miniature" scale, thinking about Grays Wharf theme.

for these bodies I used my salt mixture on a spherical form I made. still thinking about dissertation research and the space bodies of the future, female form being the most alien.

I decided to leave these female bodies out of the miniatures exhibition as I think the minimalism of their form without other material makes them successful.

how work could be shown I was loving working with the frame I made and working with how I could make a smaller version of this working with the critique I received I produced this final work

showing work to the public outside of university for the first time & in group themes exhibition. ; trying to portray my concepts and answer some of the questions they may have towards my work.

"exploring the concepts of space and time that surround reality and true vision.

light and matter forming reflections of past, present and future in the distance.

formed at birth as the encompassing form, burning into the inevitability of miniature".

re-adressing my dissertation. receiving feedback and understanding of its critique. to move on from its lack of academic success and prove its its worthiness in research and understand where I was going.

coincidently Gillian began 'dissertation healing group' where students were advised to read out a section of their dissertation. this was a surprising opportunity to prematurely show this first section of what I was working on. the critical feedback I received in this session was very useful in opening my eyes to the cliche/basic aspects of what I had created without knowing. this was part of understanding the struggles of my dissertation in how difficult I find it to get what I am thinking across in an appropriate creative way. this fuelled me to make the next section of my dissertation audio working with their feedback and my own musical endeavours.

to re-adress what I had done I felt I needed something different. throughout my first two years at university I had created audio only using my guitar,amp and digital online software. this time I rented a keyboard for the first time and this process was extremely exiting for me. the physical asmr like process of pressing on keys and limitless opportunities of making sound. I felt the similarities with producing my dissertation of tapping letters on a keyboard. I began working by getting my dissertation up again. specifically my shorter senates based section and automatic typing to what I was reading and seeing.

this next iteration of the dissertation audio made me feel visuals were important to it. the flowing nature of my dissertation was converted into visuals for the work.

also producing digital stills of dissertation inspired work.

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Porthleven prize application. passionate about this opportunity I worked to create the best application I could to this. trying to juxtaposed more commercial easy to understand aspects like cv and placement, and writing that is relatively easy to understand combines with my writing about the more unconventional aspects of my practice. working on my cv and portfolio. believing my work and its aspects to the elements and work I was excited by this opportunity. however my application was unsuccessful but this re-adressing of what I am passionate about and my flaws and critique in my practice, art world and my passion for collective fuelled my ideas to work collaboratively with people of all disciplines on my own and run with what began with just a name to work on instagram under to full ideas of a collective and work anonymously under the pseudonym aekpyrotic.

my lack of success with academic writing in my dissertation and the Porthleven prize created some time of confusion in my practice.with having to uncknowingly study though the pandemic and opportunities throughout my studies being very limited I initially thought I would go forward after university to study an MA in contemporary curation and criticism but after struggling to conform to briefs and produce the easily desirable or successful; this pushed me that my urge to physically create work and discuss art is where my true passion lies. where unsuccessful and there has been struggle in mental, physical health and academia I still feel the urge to re-adress and create. thinking about the things that have brought me the most joy on my own, forming exhibitions and collaborations on my own which lead me to apply for a Fine Art MA in Brighton; where I was born. I feel I relate more to the creative city scene and produce work with less limitation that I have realised studying in Falmouth. its isolated nature has made it tough financially and mentally but I would like to come back to Cornwall in the future with soph on a collaboration to help make change and correct some of the flaws I have felt and feed into some of the institutions in Cornwall that are for good not just financial gain. the locals authentic thoughts and mindset juxtaposed with the more upper class, second homes tourism based culture. the main art gallery being Tate st ives and high class white wall galleries which is difficult to fund with its corrupt nature.

my Fine Art MA application lead me to create another, larger portfolio where they asked for more of a span of time; this allowed me to redress some of my previous works; also producing another personal statement and research statement where I had to outline timeline of my plans for the next academic year....the grade requirements for me to be able to progress to this masters has also pushed me to improve the documentation of my practice where previously I would take a more humorous approach. however this offer has allowed me to lose up my practice by not having to worry about portfolio.

for this term I have taken inspiration from my space curation proposal.

Degree show colaboration: When I found out about working with other students Sophie Cabble was the first who came to mind. We first met in the first year where we worked together for a woodlane windows film, and then a group project second year called dream quilt. Our out of body connections and my fascination with her visuals and concepts brung me to ask her to participate in the garden arts exhibition I created last term. I then was put in the same dissertation group and it fascinating with her research into afrofuturism and techno. We got along great and the similarities in our mindset towards the art world and differancess in our practice created opportunity for an exiting collaboration so I began producing with our works in proximity in mind. to help this for the open studios exhibition Sophie and I discussed a peice of work to put in my studio space to work with.

thoughts on working with light and form led me to make a space body form out of reflective card.

creating multiple portfolios this term and looking back on my practice over the years has reminded me of the female like forms that recur subconsciously in my work. I think this piece was successful and when shown and discussed with Sophie it fuelled our ideas for the curation of our exhibition space. Sophie liked the interaction between my forms and her works.

to fuel our exhibition plans I would invite Sophie over to my house and we would listen to music and play around with lighting, sound and the space; where she introduced me to Drexiya albums and our crossover of sound and visuals, linking my research into Mark Leckey and acid jazz second year.

At one of these sessions we came up with out first exhibition plan (before the spaces were decided) to get a feel of the sort of space we wanted to create.

inspired by the amount of music I have been listening too and making and the dissertation research I did into physics I produced some sculptural works inspired by this.

something that also accrued to me in readressing my previous works for portfolios is my love of my salt material and large scale sculpture which led me to start a larger scale 'space body' which I showed in progress in the open studios exhibition.

alongside this I showed some of my keyboard audio works.

exhibition spaces finalised, visiting the space and meeting with Oliver Irvine to discuss plans .

ghostly geometric, inspired by Sophies formal work.

advanced exhibition plans

revisiting space to mesure

new design lower 'false' ceiling using no solid materials

moving forth to order and hire materials, back and forth discussion with Andrew and Ravi different to what other tutors discussed, unable to staple/screw into existing ceiling and extremely expensive materials. having to rethink plan.

discussion with engineer on logistics being able to do the space for budget and health and safety. changed plans.

wanting to work larger scale requires me to work outside struggles with this practice as its weather limitations.storage

inspired by my childhood visiting cass sculpture foundation I wanted to produce sculptures that could live outdoors (as well as possibilities of Redruth sculpture park) so I started to work with concrete. I saw the similarities between concrete and my salt medium so I thought it would be an easy transition for outdoor sculpture however it was a lot more difficult to work with than I initially thought. it would crumble and flake off easily. i causing me to redo the same forms repitidly when they would be moved. ts weight also making it difficult to move around. this caused me to show the skeletal forms more than I had planned

as exhibition becomes ever-closer and struggling with artist statement, my difficulty with my desire to be aloof and submissive with my practice, hoping that the viewer knows what I mean or not caring; I am aware this is a higharchical pompous way of producing work to be viewed that is a problem within the art world that I need to remember now that I feel I have been educated in science and art. when there is so much to say and everything meaning everything I was battling how this can be shown in the exhibition for people of all knowledge levels to understand whilst staying authentic to my practice, nothing being written for me only the writing I do myself.

to try and combat this; even with my not complete satisfaction with my dissertation in its first written form it explains what I am trying to explore and how it dissolves.

I initially printed my dissertation in its original form but I didn't like its scale and 'script-like' nature so I had to rethink.

taking inspiration from Katrina palmer I decided to make a small, uninteresting looking book. looking back I would have like to have made it black but the financial strain at this point in the term didn't allow this to happen. this was my first time trying to properly bookbind and despite its white-ness, I think it is relatively successful. it will allow the exhibition to be viewed without knowledge then if interested, someone can delve deeper. I like its almost illegible scale of text, reminding of the earth body scale and limits. with my audio versions playing as well I think it still makes the work accessible.

The tactile nature of being being to feel the weight and touch something that has weight on my practice. I am contemplating writing notes in pencil of corrections or extra things I would add.

getting work photographed, magazine, London show

The re-adressing of my dissertation means I continue to look at my links for this. coming to the end has made me dwell on what I have learnt and the people I have spent time with over the three years, strongly influenced by my tutors i have spent the most time with, Simon Clarke attitude to describing the world around him and Gillian Wylde. attitudes towards the body and art world and her sense of humour with her practice has greatly infomed my work helping with my confidence to develop as a practicing artist. their open vision further pushed me to not fear further education. pushing opportunities such as forming a band with my friends back in Brighton next term.

My overriding passion for sculpture. Thinking back to my childhood visiting cass sculpture foundation amazed by the scale and someone creating this space for large scale works for the public, anti capitalist.

Costant artist that I always go back to is anslem keifer. His struggles in art school in trying to get people to understand his work and back up what he is doing outside of the commercial easally graded practice. After the surprise with my me taking a risk submitting my dissertation and it not being graded as expected and how this limits me moving on to my conditional offer on an MA has pushed me to work harder to prove my practice is worth while. That I do not have to compromise to a commercial uninteresting style.

Anslem kifers honesty in the people he learns from and his true urge to create with the materials he works with.

He took a risk with his work as a student and had one tutor that beleved in him, that understood joseph boeys and questioning the system.

No higherarchy, production relatively affordable. Reusing materials.

What I learnt term working on dissertation on being productive at all times, not being limited by space or media. Able to work large scale only outside when weather permitting. Working with audio when room bound with my own instruments.

Painting having more control with this medium than sculpture to portray what I am wanting to show. Working with various materials to produce sculptural works conveying the visuals of the difficult to photograph.

Automatic practice working with sound and shapes that appear without intentiona dn woring with them. Trying to work more like the iniverse I am in aew of working with matter and leftovers to produce.

Thinking and learning through doing. Sculpture making falling apart, moving things, cutting, forming. Concepts and materials.

Ma at Brighton working with others, but my urge for sculptural practice constant.

my dissertation research onto earth and space body made me more interested in my mothers work with children with disabilities . her knowledge on sensory development and experiences for people with disability fuels my work for curation; to work more with this inclusivity of practice.

Jonty inspiration for working with the community and children. Arts opportunities to help others.

Trends in the art world to not be disheartened to beleve my practice is relivent and to move forward to not stop producing. Something that was tough to overcome first and second year to not further question the art worls and move from it but to change it from the inside.

My previous ma application for curation and criticism to now my next path of fine art ma my practice this year I have been able to encompass these intrests in my practice.

My critcisism of the art world and politics.

My intention is to be able to move in a space and experience without thought of how one looks, what they are doing later on that day.

aepyrotic and for its possibility to develop into what I do for the rest of my practice.

Creating a pseudonym to work under and moving to a place that allows me to make work and change. My humanity

Writing a research statement from my ma having to plan out my next steps to the next academic year.

Spontaneous and automatic.

Concept over material

No rules.

Explore without boundaries. a problem I find with the art world often is its basis on a single person, name and look. solving this by working under collective brings me more excitement to be part the future of this space.

considering presentation for assessment I took inspiration from my space curation plans and layout from my dissertation. echoing the curation of the degree show. using a colour coding system, like the universe.

setting up ceiling

putting up structure for curved shapes

breaking through the ceiling, atmosphere

moving sculptures in

making shelf for modified dissertation book

principal focus sculpture, everything mimicking everything else.

light is like that of the first thing in the morning. something I associatee with my degree in Cornwall, seeing natural light and the moon and stars before the streetlight.

putting up soph's window and screen print, this really made the space. the juxtaposition between my more abstract visuals and Sophies literal works well. linking to my research when discussing space bodies; describing of donna harroway's children of compost, where one decided to have butterfly antenna grafted to their chin. placement similar to that of words in dissertation.

installing video and audio: back dissertation film and audio, left Sophie film, up Sophie film.

modifying projector box

shared word document for exhibition practice and proposal writing.

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final install