AMASS collective
[AFTERMATH TWO]
Aftermath presents the work of 10 artists who have all graduated from post-graduate courses from Birmingham School of Art forming memebers of Amass collective. Works are sculptural, painterly, abstract, involve technology and sorytelling as well as elements of fantasy and the surreal. In a post-Elizabeth II, post-Brexit, post-pandemic era, the artists all reflect on the connections that people build in response to a dramatically changing time.
2nd-20th June 2023 | Open Tuesday - Sunday 10am - 6pm | WV3 0TZ
[ Jacob Carter ]
Jacob Carter is a multidisciplinary artist who works through a process of collecting, arranging and archiving, playing with methods of display. His process driven work is engaged with exploring materiality, with a particular interest in fragmented forms. Works often make use of found objects, being concerned with a process of transformation, where an object or material is taken into different forms or put through different processes. Much of his sculptural practice takes influences from urban aesthetics as well as ancient construction processes. Contrasting raw functional materials alongside technology, he aims to challenge the viewer's understanding of materials and question the functionality of his sculptures. His recent sculptural work has made heavy use of concrete due to its utilitarianism and the relationship with the urban environment in which he lives.
https://www.jacobcarterstudio.com/
IG: @jacobcarter_art
Fluctuate, encapsulated found objects in resin, bungee cord, 2023
Fluctuate makes use of found objects take from walks around the industrial area of digbeth, including nos canisters, pieces of rock and empty packaging. The shape of the block was take from a mold of a found piece of industrial concrete, create a link with fragmented forms and the everyday unwanted materials, creating a sense of beauty out of the unwanted. The use of bungee cord leaves the piece precariously balanced, subtly fluctuating in movement.
[ Michelle Foley ]
Foley is a multi-disciplinary artist with a passion for botanical exploration, mental awareness, and material experimentation. Her works often incorporate natural elements, such as the manipulation of growing grass, as well as unconventional materials to create thought-provoking pieces that blur the boundaries between art and nature.
From a young age, she was fascinated by the natural world, and her curiosity about the environment led her to pursue an education in Art and Horticulture. Through her studies, Foley gained a deeper understanding of the intricate relationships between plants, art and their surroundings.
Foley’s interest in mental awareness stems from her personal experiences with anxiety and depression. She believes that art can be a powerful tool for healing and self-expression, and often incorporates themes of mindfulness and self-protection into her work.
She enjoys exploring the properties of different materials, from traditional mediums like paint and clay to unconventional materials like recycled cans and found objects. Her work often pushes the boundaries of what is traditionally considered "art," challenging viewers to rethink their ideas about creativity and materiality.
Through her art, Foley seeks to inspire others to connect with the natural world, cultivate mental awareness, and embrace the creative potential of unconventional materials.
IG: @michellefoley.creations
[ Jasmine Lee ]
Jasmine Lee 李穎雯(b. 1994 UK) is a British-Born-Chinese, third generation chinese diaspora, working as a multidisciplinary artist in the UK. Works are often between cultural identity, the gaze(s), and the uncanny. The body of work is based on a common thread of loss - teased out by satirically dark content.
(Potentially upsetting -Turn device upside down to see text- s096Ɩ ǝɥʇ lᴉʇun ƃuoʞ ƃuoH puɐ ʞ∩ ǝɥʇ uᴉ ʇno pǝᴉɹɹɐɔ ǝɹǝʍ suoᴉʇnɔǝxƎ .pǝɹǝʇɹɐnb puɐ 'uʍɐɹp 'ƃunɥ ɟo ʇuǝɯɥsᴉund lɐʇᴉdɐɔ ǝɥʇ sǝɔuǝɹǝɟǝɹ sɹǝsnoɹʇ ǝɥʇ ǝldɯɐxǝ ɹoℲ).
www.jasminelee.com
IG: @jasminelee.artist
Works on display/concepts
1. Corpse. 2022. Installation. Trousers. 87 x 43cm
Corpse (2022), is based on a specific dream Lee had in 2021 about the burial of her gym bag. She considers it a Jungian metaphor of burying and digging up parts.
2. Shadows misunderstood as people. 2023. Short film.
Lee's recent film is Shadows misunderstood as people (2023). The recording was captured by her security camera. The camera’s AI identified the passing shadows as people in the scene.
[Deoffal Maldoror]
Deoffal Maldoror (b.1999) is a Yozoist artist who specialises in automatic illustration and painting, living and working in Birmingham, England. Maldoror’s dark surrealist portraiture and their work’s overall aim is to represent the natural progression of portraiture and pessimism within post-modern art and academia. The aesthetics and approaches of Maldoror’s work originate from their love of contemporary Japanese illustration and prolific analogue media traditions. They are primarily inspired by the philosophical works of Eugene Thacker, and Arthur Schopenhauer, artistically they are inspired by Junji Ito, Masaaki Nakayama, and H.R Giger. Maldoror is currently pursuing a PhD at Birmingham City University and is looking to write a thesis on horror manga as the progression of pessimistic philosophy’s representation in contemporary art, as well as having ambitions of becoming a published author and lecturer in the future.
www.deoffalmaldoror.wixsite.com/deoffal-maldoror
IG:deoffal_maldoror
[ Gemma Moore BA (Hons), MFA ]
Gemma is a British Artist, Dementia Arts Practitioner, Youth Trustee for Meadow Arts and IYP Consultant for Esmee Fairbairn, London.
Presently, Gemma is a socially engaged practitioner and works within her local community to develop various research and creative projects. Groups engaging in the projects are often characterised by neurodiversity, for example a recent Artist Residency involved working at Kirrie Connections in Kirriemuir, Scotland, a Meeting Centre for those diagnosed with dementia.
https://gemmamooreart.wordpress.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gemma-moore-625890232
Work on display - concept
Elongated Edges (2023)
Elongated Edges (2023) is a representation of a stream of consciousness that is characterised by vibrancy, disrupted and distracted thoughts, entangled and elongated to form a physical journey of thought. This work derived from the Mental Map Series (2022) whereby abstract maps would conjure the internal processing of urban spaces but from a perspective marred by fear and anxiety caused by violence inflicted upon women in the street. The concept is that Elogated Edges (2023) is one single route taken from a Mental Map to draw attention to an individual journey through a space.
[ Adalia Mynett ]
My landscapes were initially influenced by the Welsh countryside during my time as a student, at Aberystwyth University. Having recently completed an MA at Birmingham City University, my work has since evolved from purely rural imagery, to scenes which reflect the diverse attributes of my current surroundings. Within my paintings, I explore the hybridity of spaces and express an interest in land management. Despite the absence of human depiction, these landscapes pose as an evaluation of our role within the landscape, often presenting the gradual infiltration of modern-day life.
www.adaliamynettart.wordpress.com
IG:@adaliamynett_art
Works on display/Concepts
The latest painting, “BMAG”, depicts a snippet of the temporary “PoliNations” garden, which opened back in September. Contrasts between landscapes was the basis of all the work I produced throughout my MA and so I wanted to underline my time as a student at Birmingham School of Art, through the creation of this painting (a late final piece?).
[ Clare Nisbet ]
Clare is an artist-practitioner that deals with specific areas of interest within the intersections of art and architecture. The specialist areas Clare explores centre on the topics of spatial practice, domesticity, belongings, home culture, memory and identity.
The projects, multi-disciplinary in nature, can be sparked by specific and sometimes unusual forgotten histories, places, theories, stories or events to bring to the forefront current dilemmas, debates and/or issues in the topic areas of interest. Clare uses a variety of processes and methodologies to depict her art including drawing, photography, physical model making, auto-ethnographic research and sound.
www.clarenisbetartist.com
IG: @clarenisbetart
Works on display/concept
The work on display is a model to accompany a short story called ‘The playroom’ which can be accessed on Clare’s website.
Whilst a 5 year old is growing up in a mid-century built Leicester village suburb, a 5 year old Asian Ugandan girl arrives in Leicester in 1972 to start a new life in the city. Near and yet so far away. Their lives are totally separate, worlds apart, but events take place within a few miles of each other.
[ Toluwape Adebisi Molake ]
Tolu’s art celebrates Nigerian heritage and is a reflection of the rich cultural practices that have shaped her identity. Her works convey deep love and appreciation for the beauty of her culture, as well as her concern for the ways which those identities and practices are erased. Tolu seeks to explore the themes of unity, community, and interconnectedness that are at the heart of African culture. Using identity symbols from the Yuroba culture such as cowrie shells, patterns, African fabrics, calligraphy and AFRICAN HAIR - Tolu tells a story of a culture and of a people.
Work on display/concept:
'From the Salon’ depicts three women holding hands in unity - each from different walks of life and of different ages. Their unique identity and self-expression expressed through different cultural clothing and African hairstyles - championing the relationships that are born in the salon, and the sense of community and belonging that can be found there.
[ Spite ]
SPITE (b.1998) is a Phantasy Illustrator hailing from Leicestershire. They describe their work as an alchemical practice, a distillation of ephemera inter-spliced with myth. Closely bound to Jungian shadow-work and archetypes, a rendered cynicism laced with seductive detail confronts not only their own internal landscape but those of the banal world they have spawned from. Though wrought with brutality SPITE’s “CESSPITT” invites viewers with an open hand, to peer into a well of absurd lore and aberrant forms. To them, parable and the phantasmagoria are integral ingredients in addressing the horrors of the naive hopes and despairs of the human condition. Ink is SPITE’s lifeblood, the fluid that boils forth from the UV drip. The medium through which their will speaks and needles are directed. They study beneath giants, those that have informed their work greatly, from Bernie Wrightson to Ian Miller and Virgil Finlay. Literary influences include Joseph Campbell, Samuel Beckett and Clark Ashton Smith.
IG: impish_spite
Work on display – Concepts
The Pale Boy - Ink on paper - 297mm x 420mm - 2022 - 2023
The artwork “The Pale Boy” serves as a dialogue on the absence of self-worth and respect in the pursuit of love and a greater sense of belonging associated with someone, something or a group; an outpouring of devotion into a void. These themes along with many other undercurrents present under a variety of motifs and symbols. The stagnant undead, comprised of clay and mud serve as a direct example, those who are disconnected from a corporeal embrace, toiling away in despondency as they sculpt effigies of themselves from their own flesh.
Attached is an excerpt of lore written in correspondence to this work.
“Surveilling the landscape below, a pale presence observes the gargantuan giants beneath with baited breath. Colossal silhouettes comprised of mud drenched bodies, excavating and sculpting the ground beneath them, forming muses of their own. Each mountainous corpse yard tended to with utmost care. The climax of this heartsick ordeal finds a giant crumbling before its own creation, only to be reborn before another crumbled mass of hope and purpose. All but pawns in agriculture, the vile machinations of the Pale Boy. Presiding over a great many chapters, castes and communes, the Pale Boy's presence feeds on the chagrined; despondent souls of the Dreadborne. The undead who worship this Machiavellian Idol, much like berries plucked before their maturation, toil and moil in ceaseless stagnance without a shred of prestige to show for it. While the motivations of the Pale Boy are utterly selfish and parasitic, sustained by untold stories of folly and sorrow; some of those who find commune in the embroidered fold of the Boy's arms find little solitude but more than they might elsewhere. Sealed away beneath sunken cathedrals, embroidered cabals of undead reside. Lonely husks who yearn for the embrace of another, of warm bodies and feeling. Much like their false Idol, they cling to what they covet, sewing themselves to one another, subsisting as grotesque perversions of form. To the Pale Boy the world is its opium, only in sleep the inherent frictions of its presence are blurred, all of its failures and faults consigned into the ether. No remorse, no remonstrance, only folly and the wreckages of its own wayward misdeeds.”
[ Daniel Jideofor Oneyeke ]
My recent art works aims at demonstrating the impact of western religion on the Igbo art. By using paintings as a medium of expression and creating visual striking semi abstract images, I aim at challenging the viewer to critical thinking and evaluate the impact of these two distinctive cultures on each other and the intersection between these two separate bodies, art and religion. My painting seeks to awakening the consciousness of the viewers and also question the impact of Christianity on my Igbo art and the outcome of integrating western religion to the art of Igbo society. My art also aims at engaging the viewers to evaluate their perceptions of relationship between religion, art and people’s way of life.
IG: Deejay3733
Works on display/concepts
The Igbo people of Nigeria have a rich cultural heritage that is expressive in their art forms. Historically, Igbo art has played an important role in their cultural practices, rituals, and beliefs. However, the introduction of Western religion through the arrival of Christian missionaries in the 19th century significantly impacted Igbo art. This essay will examine the impact of Western religion on Igbo art. Before the arrival of Christian missionaries, the Igbo people had a well-established system of art that was reflective of their cultural beliefs, practices, and history. Like other African societies, the artistic expressions of the Igbo people was utilitarian, with art being created to serve various social, religious, and economic purposes. In particular, traditional Igbo art focused on the representation of ancestral beings and natural icons like wild animals and flora. With the advent of Christianity, there was a notable shift in the subject matter of Igbo art. This was particularly evident in the murals and frescoes created by early Christian missionaries, which depicted Biblical themes and images like the creation story, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This served a double purpose as it not only provided a means of artistic expression, but also helped to convey religious teachings to the Igbo people. Additionally, Western religion influenced the form and style of Igbo art by introducing new techniques, materials, and motifs. For example, Christian missionaries introduced formal perspective and anatomy in their paintings and sculptures, which were not previously used in traditional Igbo art. European materials like paint, canvas, and paper were also introduced, which boosted the development of painting and drawing in the Igbo art tradition. The influence of Western religion on Igbo art is also evident in the development of Christian icons and symbols in Igbo art. Popular Christian symbols like the cross, the dove, and the lamb have been incorporated into traditional Igbo art, representing the fusion of Western and traditional Igbo art styles. In addition, art objects like Rosary beads, crucifixes, and statues of saints have become popular items in Igbo households, as a personal expression of faith. Furthermore, the introduction of Western religion triggered a decline in the use of traditional Igbo art in religious practices and rituals. This was evident in the abolition of shrine figures, which were previously used to represent ancestral spirits, and replaced with sculptures of Christian saints and icons.
In conclusion, the impact of Western religion on Igbo art is undeniable. The introduction of Christianity brought about a decline in certain aspects of Igbo art, whilst also stimulating new developments, techniques, and iconographies. Despite the influence of Western religion that made Christian art dominant in Igbo culture, many Igbo artists continue to incorporate traditional Igbo motifs and themes into their Christian art.
