ASSEMBLAGES and ME.
My first knowledge of assemblage as an art form came from studying at Lancaster College of Art in the 60s when still a teenager. I was introduced to the work of Kurt Schwitters, his found object collages and his incredible junk sculpture constructions known as Metz, completed from 1919, and also the characters made by Paul Klee for his son Felix’s puppet theatre. Of course the use of assemblage was well established by the then current Pop Art movement through the work of Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and Claes Oldenburg and the sculptress Marisol. It was then that I developed a particular interest in studying Katsinas dolls made by The Hopi Indians of North East Arizona. The Katsinas are known to be the spirits of deities, natural elements or animals, or the deceased ancestors of the Hopi, used in their ceremonies and then presented to the girls in the tribe to be hung on the walls of their pueblo dwellings. I remember my tutor at the time warned me against producing my own dolls, citing Nietzsche as the inevitable negative influence of such a dark study choice! His warning of psychological instability obviously struck home as It was not until the year 2000, forty years later, that I began to work on assemblage figures myself.
The pieces on show are as follows:
Party Frock. 2001
Little St George. 2013
My phone is bigger than yours. 2018