September 14th - Deborah Crowe

This week Deborah Crowe talked to us about her art practice. What I found most repetitive in her work was her exploration of space and containment, and construction and architecture. I especially liked her work with the human body's relationship to space, though you can also tell she incorporates ideas of containing the body and constructing objects for the body. One of the works she showed us really stood out to me, it was Aldina which were corsets constructed out of different materials. It spoke about feminism and politics, the 'correct' image projected by society and women distorting their bodies to suit it. Deborah stated that it also spoke about torture which she was interested in as a theme to explore.

In a work she collaborated with Kim Fraser on, Dual Outlook (1997), it really travels away from the 'norm.' I like how it is so out there, its very strong in using aesthetic and expressive effects. You can see from the top part of the body structure that she has worked with architectural elements like grids. Again this is very much a structure about containing the body and the space the body inhabits.

Collared (1999) is very fashion based, it really brings across her exploration with materials and how she never restricts herself to just one medium.

Caroline Broadhead's Neckpiece Veil circa 1986 relates really well to Deborah's work. It is very similar in its containment properties and I think the shadows that are created inside really add to the work, they're like a projection against the object of a human body. It is a very closed space and speaks of the human body wanting to have freedom of movement and not being able to.

A really great work by an artist that Deborah showed us that relates to space was Open Wide (2009) by Clare Barclay. Barclay has described these structures in terms of a physical manifestation of imaginary spaces (www.doggerfisher.com/artists/artistdetail.php?id=46).

These 'unfinished' rooms contain echoes of recognisable lifestyles and environments. They have a nostalgic element to them which allows the viewer to connect with the space.

My favourite work by Deborah had to be Shig because of the use of space, the viewer's experience with it and the effect of shadows.

To be honest, with this work, I'm more interested in the visual than the meaning. I like how it looks eerie and haunting, the ghostly suspension of the objects. It also has a kind of cluttered feel to it, I imagine it would be very interesting to move around in and in that respect I believe Deborah was spot on about art being better seen in reality than in photographs.