In my head I had a vision of a fantasy world made up of everyday items, a little like in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and this was my starting point for this work. I am increasingly fascinated with the idea of giving an everyday item a new meaning and existence.
This recent piece of work is based around a fictional narrative “The Legend of the Jelly People” which came about gradually as the work progressed, as I did not start out with the plotline. The story is about a contagious disease which overcame a population of toy soldiers turning them into Jelly people; they are then invincible and eventually take over the world.
I did not intend for the story to be the main feature of this work, I wanted it to be about the way that the objects have been given new identities. The story was just a tool in the making of the piece to help it fit together logically; this is why I put quite vague titles beneath the images because it forces the viewer to interpret the piece however they wish. I would like the audience to admire the work for its aesthetic qualities of textures and colours and the amusing way that the pegs can become a bridge and a dishcloth can become grass.
The part which I find the most enjoyable about creating pieces such as this is using my intuition and imagination to make the ideas in my head out of simple everyday items that are hanging around in front of me, it forces me to look at things differently and evaluate how well they would work with a new identity. By using found objects, I think that it highlights the issues of recycling and giving things a new use which is something that I would like to explore further in future work. I want the viewer to be able to relate to my art work, so by surrounding them in familiar objects I feel that this helps them to get involved in the piece and spark their imaginations.
