ARTICLE
Northumbria University
By: Rebecca Rhodes
BA Fine Art (hons) split into the three distinctions of Painting, Print and Sculpture
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Rebecca Rhodes, 'Bagged', Etching, February 2008.
I spoke a little about the nature of my work in the writers profile section. I'll add a little about the aesthetics of my practise. My prints can be broadly split into the categories of monoprints and etchings. Monoprinting is a method I admire for its nature of concealment: the image the viewer sees will only ever be a fascimile of the original drawing. This method also invariably leaves a bodily prescense in the form of smudges and marks where the paper has been mistakenly touched. Everyday life centres around everything bodily, and the narrative pulling through every piece of my work refers to a bodily prescence or touch. The imagery I use includes body parts, fertile plant life, aggressive plant life, clothing and splayed internal organs. I like the dissection of things, to imagine what is under the surface or what parts combine to create a whole. You could apply this description to the themes behind my work also. I am interested in human nature, the human compulsion to destory vs the fragile, beautiful aspects to human. Sexuality, and the "animal" savage instinct play a part in the themology of my practise.
Today I was searching for a quote to accompany my images in our degree show catalogue. I came up with three to select from:
"Fantasy is toxic: the private cruelty and the world war both have their start in the heated brain."
Elizabeth Bowen, Bowen's Court, Afterword, (1942)
"For thy desires
Are wolvish, bloody, starved and ravenous."
William Shakespeare
"Cruelty has a Human Heart,
And jealousy a Human Face;
Terror the Human Form Divine,
And secrecy the Human Dress."
William Blake, A Divine Image, (1974)
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Rebecca Rhodes, 'Guilty', Monoprint, January 2008. One of two works which is currently exhibiting at the Sakaide Civic Art Museum, Japan, in the 'Sakaide Art Grand Prix 2008'.
Easter vacation but the studios are still open for unattended working. Have been working on more monoprints; I'm still playing around with groups of images for the final show. I'm building up a directory of shapes and images that will hold different meaning when placed singularly or in relation to others. Research is ongoing.
Recurring elements are hands, arms and other limbs, savage flora, insect type body parts and hooded figures.
Rebecca Rhodes
I'm a printmaker who also creates a lot of drawings and paper sculptures based in the painting studios at my University. My work speaks about metamorphosis; I am interested in the state of things being unstable and mutable. The fine line between barbarity and the notion of being 'civilised' captivates me and informs much of my work. The imagery I use often refers, directly or more subtly, to historical texts, fairytale and myth, newspaper and magazine stories and other literature.
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