Artist Statement for Fine Art Degree Show 2013

I have used my prints to create a series of intricate handmade optical devices inspired by illusionary toys from the Victorian era. I researched these fascinating objects then created my own phantasmagorias based on a stereoscope, peephole, kaleidoscope and magic lantern.

My work explores scale - the gigantic versus the miniature, depth - the illusion of the three dimensional using the flat image, and what the eye actually sees and perceives resulting in a tension between fantasy and reality. The viewer is directed into a proscenium gaze, tempted to peer closer, sometimes through peepholes and lenses, to unravel the composition, the devices not only tricking, but teaching the eye to look.

My prints were inspired by various sources including the sinister Bavarian legends of King Ludwig and Wagnerian toy theatres, the propaganda of the Japanese Kabuki plays and the living stage of Ibsen’s ‘A Doll’s House’. This juxtaposition of history and folklore is blurred by a re-working of my material through maquettes, drawing, collage, paintings and finally print. The printmaking process allows a careful construction of layers, the aesthetic mirroring the conceptual, almost as if we have to look through the layers to discover what is real and what is dreamlike.

A playful interaction between spectator and device is key to the artworks’ function.