RCA2021/judithburrows

https://2021.rca.ac.uk/students/judith-burrows

My RCA graduation site features work created in 2021 and exhibited at a solo show at Gallery 40, City Road, Old Street, London.

I was invited to exhibit as featured artist at Broomhill-estate Arts Hotel who are hosting 25 pieces, sculptures and paintings in their gallery. Opened December 2021, new work and closing weekend 8th -10th April 2022

Fragile Earth: from ‘Chaos in Paradise’: steel, organic matter, lacquer: triptych 110cmx1250x3

‘Chaos in Paradise’ : triptych : 95 x1250 cm : steel, Ink, organic matter

I was invited to create a new piece of work in response to ‘Revelation’ working in collaboration with ‘theo-artistry project’ and PHD theology students at St Andrews University. A text and image project, I printed on steel prior to patination in an exploration of the response of nature to man-made materials and the interventions that I have imposed. As the observed symbiosis deepens it reveals the tenuous relationship between man and nature.

Exhibited at IG gallery and St Andrews Episcopal church, St Andrews, Scotland. Dec. 2021

Travers Smith Collection 2022: Gaia: Mother and Child (homage to Barbara Hepworth) steel, organic matter, from ‘Uncertain States’

Lostness, Uncertainty, and Precarity, individual and collective, are the concerns of my painting practice. From global political concerns, to the imbalance of natural order and fast changing topography. 

Fractured landscapes, empty streets, husks of buildings, glimpses of distant horizons stretching to infinity, reflect my fluctuating perception of the world in crisis and respond to memories of place, peoples, and a geography once photographed: altered states embracing notions of ‘Lostness’ and unpredictability.

As the structure of the earth’s surface responds to environmental change, it throws up apprehension. Lone figures in an incongruous terrain, human presence fumbling in the darkness searching for connection to deep spiritual memory, while walking towards the abyss.

Oil paintings on canvas are corrupted by liquid dripping in space. Re-appropriated lithography, stencils, letterpress and metal waste, shift viewpoint to beyond the surface while pigments from decaying steel and organic matter are an attempt to re-connect.

UNCERTAIN STATES VI : Oils, rust, mixed media on canvas: 120x90x4cm

UNCERTAIN STATES: A lot of things don’t make sense any more: Oils, rust, mixed media on canvas: 122x92x4cms

DRAWN BY THE MOON: oils and mixed media on canvas: 120x90x2cm

FRAGILE EARTH: oils and mixed media on canvas, on board: 42x37cm

MOMENTS IN THE CHAOS OF OUR TIME

oils, mixed media on canvas 122x93x4cms

VISIONS THAT SHIMMER ON THE EDGE OF PERCEPTION

oils and mixed media on canvas 82X62x2

Traces of dust, decay, rust, ash, dead leaves, bones, sand, salt, the effluent of my processes, are collected and placed in 8 hand-blown glass globes, like fragile glass coffins,

“Make yourself one with dust. This is the profound identity. The eternal profundity between man and nature… of ash and the earth from which we come and from which we return’” Antonio Tapies from Tao te Ching

Transparent and Womblike, yet inaccessible with sharp edges, the globes are balanced on sculpted, poisonous zinc, cut into sharp barbed-wire strands – a contradiction between the purity of glass and the jagged hostility of the wire. These in turn are precariously placed on a thick sheet of plate glass, itself then balanced on 27cm high rusted steel rods.

HAND-BLOWN GLASS

27cm,24cm,21cm,18cm,15cm,12cm,9cm,8cm

Cubes, hollow, perforated, expanded, folded, welded, and placed together or in isolation in a balancing state, with potential to fall.

GAIA : MOTHER AND CHILD

18x18x18cm cube, 5x5x5cm cube

steel, organic matter, magnet

IN MORPHIC RESONANCE

5x5x5cm steel cubes

baby cube 5x5x5cm

Mild steel, perforated steel, expanded steel,

Size: 

various sizes

In a time of ‘Uncertainty’, ‘Lostness’ and global precariousness, I am prompting a dialogue between living organisms, and the man-made, and exploring a parallel mutual interaction. 

I am concerned with imbalance of natural order and fragile eco-systems, and searching for balance, symbiosis and connectivity, at a time of disconnection.

In an interdisciplinary practice, I choose materials that decay and atrophy with time, in turn becoming absorbed back into the earth, acknowledging impermanence. Metals, glass, degradable papers and canvas.  I observe nature’s response to these materials by creating narratives in a form of scientific experiment.

A tension between the organic in transformation, communicating with the unstable man-made in turn influenced by the elements, and the seasons. An exchange takes place through corrosion and decay.

My attempt at intervention precludes any defined outcome. Like a game of chess, I make a move and nature responds in unpredictable ways.

Rust, and transformed organic matter from the interaction is captured in glass globes as evidence.

At a point of vulnerability what is revealed are rich tones and form decided by nature in the printed outlines of the source material: fragility on the surface in metamorphosis; a palimpsest holding memory in process: a rebirth.

ALCHEMY I-XIII

Triptych from ALCHEMY I-XII: Winter Solstice: 30x125x3 steel and organic matter

Triptych from ALCHEMY I-XII: Autumn Equinox: 30x125cmx3 (SOLD) steel nd organic matter

ALCHEMY XIII: 30x125cm : steel and organic matter

WALL AND FLOOR PANELS

SYMBIOSIS V : FRAGILE EARTH

Diptych : wall panel, steel, organic matter : 33.5x60cms

SYMBIOSIS V : wall panel

steel, organic matter, 61x22cm, 5x5cm

TRACES Diptych

Steel, organic matter

SYMBIOSIS X

steel, organic matter: 26x49cms

SYMBIOSIS 3mm steel, patination,

SYMBIOSIS VIII
wall panel, steel, organic matter; 27x71cms (SOLD)

SYMBIOSIS : Diptych

steel, organic matter, 20x50x2 cms

ANTIBIOSIS I

Floor panel: Corten steel, organic matter, galvanised steel base, 90x35cm

ANTIBIOSIS III

Wall/Floor panel : 75x62cms

Corten Steel, organic matter,

ANTIBIOSIS

Corten steel. organic matter

Wall/Floor PANEL

Lostness, Uncertainty, Disempowerment, Precarity and Fragility.   

I am exploring ideas of apprehension in the current ecological crisis and global political chaos. The vulnerability of humanity exacerbated by the abuse and violation of earth’s resources, and the recognition of the interconnectivity of all living organisms, while acknowledging impermanence, Anicca.

My ideas are reflected in cold, hard metals, fragile sharp glass,­­­ and degradable papers: materials that decay and atrophy with time, waste materials that have been discarded, abandoned. Creating a dialogue between the natural world; the living breathing organism and the man-made; a symbiosis, an antibiosis.

      SYMBIOSIS                                             SCREENS

 

IVV

III I

II Front and Back

.   

Symbiosis I, II, III, IV, V                                                

The panels of the screens are lightly welded, held together by a thread. The organic in transformation, communicating with the unstable man-made in turn influenced by the elements, and the seasons. An exchange takes place through corrosion and decay. Tension between the decaying materials and attempts to manipulate by holding back areas with tape, adding water at varying temperatures and acidity, leaves an indeterminate result suggesting an inability to control nature. Variations in colour and depth of patination exposes seasonal differences, cycles that reveal matter in transformation. Rich tones resembling the colours of pollutants, and a form decided by nature and the elements, in the printed outlines of the source material. There is a sense of transience and impermanence posing questions on the transitional nature of life, and a cycle of change.

        SYMBIOSIS       

SYMBIOSIS IX           

Corten steel panel, organic matter 68x15cms(SOLD)

steel welded cubes 18cm and 5cm, 18cm base

SCHADEN

Shards are a response to desolate wastelands: homage to landscapes made barren by human detritus in a place no longer useful.

Steel totems, artefacts to antiquity, heavy and rigid, with acutely sharp edges suggesting intransigence. Lines and marks on their surface, created from interaction with each other in the elements, in antibiosis. Scars on the surface. Solid and sharp yet holding a delicacy and vulnerability.

When separated a sense of ‘lostness’ in contradiction of the status quo. Small metal squares cling like limpets to the surface, others lean precariously on each other: the tenuousness of the human condition.

Corten Steel

Heights from 180cm to 30cm width from 15 cm to 60cm

SCHADEN I,II, III, IV, V., PERFORATED STEEL CUBE, : Corten steel, organic matter, CORRUGATED STEEL PANEL: mild steel

SCHADE V 38x20x12 (SOLD) CORRUGATED PANEL

SCHADE IV

Corten Steel, Organic Matter, 81x31x21cms

SCHADE II : 150x50x23cm : Corten steel and Organic Matter

SCHADE III : 127x45x16 cms ; Corten Steel, Organic Matter

CUBE : Perforated steel : 11cm

CONTINENTAL DRIFT

CONTINENTAL DRIFT

steel, organic matter 95x50x25cms, square floater 9x9cm steel

Paintings for sale – #artistsupportpledge – all priced at £250

New work inspired by song lyrics: ‘Beyond the Horizon’ : oils on canvas; lyrics Bob Dylan ; 25x25x4cm SOLD

   

L. May 4th 2020 : oils and mixed media on canvas : 20x20x2cm.                  R. Unpredictable : oils and mixed media : 20x20x2cm

 

Slowdance : oils and mixed media on canvas 25x25x4cm and mounted on studio wall

    

Nightwalk II : In this moment VI : oils and mixed media on canvas : 25x25x4cm SOLD

and mounted on wall in studio.

   

L. Many Rivers to Cross : oils and mixed media 20x20x2cm.                           R. Nightwalk I : oils and mixed media on canvas : 25x25x4cm (SOLD)

. 

l. .Exit : oils and mixed media on canvas : 20x20x2cm (SOLD).                        R. En Estos Momentos : In this moment IV : oils and mixed media on canvas : 25x25x4cm (SOLD)

    

1. Pause : oils and mixed media on canvas : 25x25x4cm (SOLD).                    2, Light at the end. : oils and mixed media on canvas : :25x25x4cm (SOLD)

WALKS on the WILDSIDE 

Walks on the Wildside 1: 20×20 cm ; oils on canvas

Walks on the Wildside V: 20×20 cm ; oils on canvas

Walks on the Wildside II: 20×20 cm ; oils on canvas

Walks on the Wildside VIII: 20×20 cm ; oils on canvas

Walks on the Wildside VI: 20×20 cm ; oils on canvas

Walks on the Wildside IV: 20×20 cm ; oils on canvas

Walks on the Wildside III: 20×20 cm ; oils on canvas

Walks on the Wildside IX : 20×20 cm ; oils on canvas

Walks on the Wildside X : 20×20 cm ; oils on canvas