FRAMEWORK

The construction of the frame culminates the essence of my artistic practice. Throughout my development as an artist, I have focused centrally on socially engaging spaces, Art Útil and sensory mediums. The frame seemed the appropriate medium to embody all of these concepts into one piece. I do not wish to hold authorship of the piece as my job in creating it is now finished. The future interactions with the frame will be the continuation of the artistic process. The nature of the piece being useful was a crucial aspect to me. I wanted to create something that was not only useful to the community but acted as a medium upon which interactions could take place. This, I consider to be the art. I have incorporated features such as seating, fruit and vegetable troughs, sensory features such and thinking screens. The functional nature of the piece encapsulates my affinity for Art Útil by making interaction a fundamental component to the work. Collaboration has also been a repeated focal point in the development of my artistic process. The first items that will be hosted in the frame are a fellow artists, Bryn Davis’ plants. The choice to exhibit plants in the frame was to address sustainability and Permaculture. The repeated cycle of growth in the production of fruit and vegetables is symbolic of the nature of a piece that continues to be useful to its surrounding community, even in the absence of the artist who created it. It is essential that the frame gives back and provides a platform for people in the community. The relationship between art and community is something that I not only consider to be fundamental to the arts but is something I consider to be often overlooked. The frame acts as the connecting point between art and the community, in my pursuit to create a positive relationship between the two. To fulfil the purpose of the work, I intend for the piece not to be displayed in a traditional exhibition space but to be permanently placed in a community garden where it can be used rather than simply observed. The outside space is imperative to the display of the frame as this is key to fulfilling its artistic purpose. The incorporation of sensory features and thinking screens into the frame are demonstrative of my ongoing research and practise relating to sensory engagement. I intend to trial and test these features to see which elicit the most engagement as these features will add to the useful and interactive nature of the piece. The benches provide seating and resting places to bring people together and allow for a place of conversation, reflection and contemplation. The practical element of the seating is also important to allow for different types of engagements to occur within it.