Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University of South Wales (joint submission with Cardiff Metropolitan University and University of Wales Trinity Saint David)
Bookwork: “Lure” “Brisées”: Exhibition
Bookwork and Solo National Touring Exhibition.
Published bookwork “Brisées”, photographs, sculpture, video and drawings. ISBN: 978-0-9574272-2-8 Published by GOST, London
Research Context
The works were made since 2011 as an enquiry into the local, rural landscape near Sear’s home in Raglan, South Wales. The research developed from Sear’s on-going engagement with the relationships and convergences of landscape and technology from a gendered perspective which formed the critical context of her Doctorate (University of Wales, 2009).
Research Imperatives
The underlying research question was: how does the “walked” or “felt” landscape, as opposed to the landscape of the technical sublime and the virtual environment, influence the point of view of the viewer and their location in relation to the image/object/video?
Project methods
Methodologies were employed with a particular focus on the role of the artist as an activator of the viewed experience of the artwork. Literary references include writers Timothy Morton, Roger Callois and Henry David Thoreau.
Brisées, form part of a multi-media exploration of the human and animal body, and their relationships with landscape. Figures, photographed in the act of cutting, are themselves consumed by their environments.
The monochrome, often pixelated images of woodlands are sourced from the internet following a search for the word ‘tree surgeon’. Each image features an orb which sometimes covers half of the picture surface. These spheres or distended egg-shapes appear arbitrarily placed but are delicately balanced in stripped ‘tree crowns’ through careful positioning by the artist. Many images show ropes and ladders trailing inside the orbs as clues to their origin and hinting at the obscured figure.
Dissemination
Oriel Davies Gallery Newtown February 2nd – April 17th
Oriel Plas Glyn-y- Weddw: May 5th- June 30th
Bay Art Cardiff: May 25th -21st June
Oriel Wrecsam: July 6 – August 31st
“Witnessing The Wilderness” (group exhibition) Wimbledon Space April 2013.
