Final Major Project

It's a bit overdue but here is an overview of my final major project from university. I can't quite believe that I started this project exactly a year ago and I'm only just posting about it, but if i don't post now I probably never will!

I decided that I wanted research to be a big part of my project, so I was looking for a collection of objects that had an interesting history, and I came across The Foundling Museum Tokens

* as a side note there is currently an exhibition of these tokens at the Foundling Museum, worth a look (I haven't managed to get there yet but am hoping to go this week) follow the link above to read about these tokens.

What was most interesting about these tokens was not the objects themselves or even the stories behind them, although that was the lure of them to start with, it was people's reaction to them that most excited me.

I decided to explore this in my own pieces, so I chose an object, a child's chair and decided to recreate this object over and over, using different materials and processes, and then exhibit them as a group to see what people's reaction would be to each object.

Mary J (Spineless), 2012, digitally printed fabric, foam, cotton filler

Richard Lawrence (Bruised and Broken) 2012, Porcelain, Steel mesh, beeswax, sealing wax

Elizebeth Slipton (Make do and Mend), 2012, Stoneware, gold resin.

Susanna Bickerton (No Use Crying Over Spilt Milk), 2012, Porcelain, Beeswax

Broken Chair, 2012, Porcelain, Beeswax

My installation at New Designers with 6 of my chairs, including 4 of those shown above plus one made with brown paper (back left) and wax (back middle)

Some people reacted very strongly to certain chairs, the fabric chair probably had the funniest reactions when people realised it wasn't made of burnt wood, one guy even had a go at me for 'tricking' him!

Wow, I guess leaving this post this long has it's benefits. If I had written this just after doing the project this description would have been much, much longer!