'roots' by LJMU Fine Art Students

Tuesday 22 March – Saturday 2 April 2011

roots

A joint exhibition displaying the works of four 2nd year fine art students from liverpool john moores university, which features a diverse celebration of medias including textiles, illustration, sculpture, photography, and digital compositions, exploring the theme of roots. electronic art by , second students studying BA in Fine Art at the Faculty of Art at LJMU.

Angharad Rhys

I explore my welsh roots through a mixture of medias within my work; such as welsh text and traditional craft methods. The experience of living in Wales is an obvious influence. I also bring an element of my current surroundings from the city environment into my works. For these pieces I initially started off working with trees, which then resulted in experimenting with making my own felt out of wool, and naturally bringing stitching involved as it’s a media I use a lot within my work, and enjoy the effects I achieve through it. I like my work to have depth and texture; it also has decorative appeal and is always quite colorful.

Different to a lot of young artists in Liverpool, I have grown up under the influence of welsh artists, mainly painters such as Shani Rhys James and Mary Lloyd Jones, so I naturally produce work that reflects my love for my country. Especially now, since living in a city, I find I appreciate the beautiful landscapes that surround my home a lot more. I am interested to see the reaction from the Liverpool public to the welsh poems and the work in general as I've only previously exhibited my work in Wales.

Lois Rogers

My current work is about the intimate observations of my family in Wales, recording they're activities through a series of moments in time through the medium of photography and video. The Welsh language is an essential component in expressing this intimacy, as it is the language spoken in our household. I also included a sculptural element to my work by combining images with natural materials which I have an appreciation for, having been raised in a rural setting and surrounded by the natural world all my life.

The images I produce are used to convey messages, how they show emotion and how our perception of images can be affected by motion and movement.

The reasons I have for doing this project are both personal and aesthetic. Family and loved ones have surrounded me all my life and I find great inspiration from them. I feel that life is like a ticking clock and it’s important for me to capture each moment whether it be still or moving.

I feel that hands are quite a personal thing and can give an insight into someone’s identity and lifestyle, they can go some way to revealing who they are as a person. I aimed to capture my family and friends individuality through taking photographs of their hands, and hopefully show a sense of difference. My work is a representation of a heart warming subject and something I hopefully feel most people can relate to.

Reuben Barr

My work is illustrative and relates to the human condition. The work is tongue-in-cheek, melodramatic and has no set definition, although I like to think it’s in some way reflective of my ego or perceived self. The drawings are an arrangement of symbols rather than a narrative. There is minimal agenda in their creation, and they are open to subjective interpretation. Generally the work explores notions like desire, anger and betrayal. The work links to the title of “Roots” in the sense that every emotion, and therefore creative action, has a subconscious “root” or origin in memory. These artworks evince that idea. The idea of “Never” is also central, as it’s something we all have to deal with.

Will Facer

The modern world has mixed opinions of the rate of industrialisation. Some argue that the convenience of the city gives the worthless man opportunities, whereas others argue that it destroys individualism, and creates a wealth of waste, pollution and exploitation.

As a new student moving from a small town in Cheshire, my work has been heavily inspired by the continuing beauty of the Liverpool city landscape; from the towering architecture that forms an iconic identity for the city, to the derelict textures within the urban decay that has corroded throughout time.

In my latest project, I have used photography and computer manipulation to create a series of digital montages that convey a narrative within the diverse images of the cityscape.