One of the significant elements of reality, despite culture, circumstance, or manifestation, is grief. A universal emotional response to loss, whether through heartbreak, death, moving homes, retirement or employment instability, its intensity is recognisable and mutually understood.
My practice is centred on unsolicited comments and opinions that seem to accompany vulnerability, especially grief. For example, “get over it”, “you need to move on”, “it’s all in your head”, using bold, capitalised fonts to convey the text in the striking and assertive context that they are received. Throughout studio 4, I have come to understand how common and distasteful it is to hear these comments, building on an endless notebook of quotes.
Following on from my exploration with three-dimensional text in studio 3, I began to look at alternative textures and how alternate materials hold power in the interpretation of text. Glenn Ligon’s Study for Negro Sunshine II (2011)[1] informed my initial experiments with lino printing. This led me to consider if legibility was a necessity for my practice. I bleed from your hands further explored printing, layered with watercolour, but determined that my theme was not as clear as I had intended. Therefore, I chose to reconsider legibility in my text.
Jenny Holzer’s Inflammatory Essays (1979-82)[2] use bold, billboard-style fonts and bright coloured posters to stand out amongst their surroundings, as well as language that provoked the audience. The simplicity of appeal drew in an audience, shifting their perspective once the essays were read. Throughout studio 4, Holzer’s essays remained a consistent influence; considering audience interaction, with distinct interest in her use of an eye-catching font. Walk all over me was my first exhibition piece, of which I stuck black vinyl to the floor. Furthermore, the letters were placed purposefully in a high traffic area of the exhibition, meaning that following the set path of the exhibition was interrupted by my piece, and encouraged the work to be walked on.
This further led me to explore imagery in relation to text, specifically how childhood represents purity, vulnerability and innocence. I drew on Tony Cokes’[3] minimalistic approach to direct how I compliment text with an oil painting, for example. By projecting over a self-portrait of my childhood self, I typed out various phrases, allowing the camera to capture the raw footage of comments and responses to grief in my own experience. Cokes’ dissonant soundtracks create an immersive atmosphere to his works, balancing this with vibrant colours on LED screens, therefore motivating me to keep the original audio from my recording.
Childhood innocence incorporated techniques from both Cokes and Holzer. A loop of childhood videos from the 1980s-2000s were projected on a wall, broken up by one of five statements. Original camcorder audio was played through a single pair of headphones. By standing alone watching the video, despite the projection being so large, only one person at a time could truly immerse themselves in the video, which appeared heartwarming and of fond memories, until the statements abruptly appeared during one clip. As with Holzer, this meant that the seemingly happy and reminiscent atmosphere was shifted to something less light-hearted, and this was accelerated by the immersion, motivated by Cokes’ practice.
This led to exploration of sensory experience. Again, Cokes’ use of immersion, as well as Mel Bochner’s[4]composition and layering of text and colour, I created two pieces that incorporate tactility. Tough Luck and This means more to you utilise materials that I had accessible, and create juxtaposition between the text and background.
Finally, my degree show pieces consist of four canvases, each of handwritten text that are a diary entry response to grief commentary. Each text piece begins the same but takes a different perspective as an ode to the stages of grief. Bochner’s use of colour informed my use of colour in this project, of which I chose to use colours that were not associated with emotion, similarly to Holzer's essays which use colour as an incentive to view the work, but unrelated to the written text. Johan Deckmann[5] led to my decision to use my own handwriting, as it reiterated grief as a personal experience, instead of attempting to alter perspective, or stand out as a think piece.
[1] “Glenn Ligon, Study for Negro Sunshine II, #31, 2011,” Kavi Gupta Gallery, 2025,https://kavigupta.com/artworks/6792-glenn-ligon-study-for-negro-sunshine-ii-31-2011/.
[2] MACBA, “Inflammatory Essays, 1979 - 1982 | Jenny Holzer,” MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 2024,https://www.macba.cat/en/obra/r5047-inflammatory-essays/.
[3] “Tony Cokes | Greene Naftali,” Tony Cokes | Greene Naftali, n.d.,https://greenenaftaligallery.com/artists/tony-cokes.
[4] “Mel Bochner | Fraenkel Gallery,” Fraenkel Gallery, February 15, 2025,https://fraenkelgallery.com/artists/mel-bochner#.
[5] “Johan Deckmann, in Loving Memory, 2025,” Loughran Gallery, 2025,https://www.loughrangallery.co.uk/artists/55-johan-deckmann/works/1549-johan-deckmann-in-loving-memory-2025/.