Su Blackwell: The fragility of our life, dreams and ambitions

Su Blackwell gives the following Artist's Statement on her page:
"Paper has been used for communication since its invention; either between humans or in an attempt to communicate with the spirit world. I employ this delicate, accessible medium and use irreversible, destructive processes to reflect on the precariousness of the world we inhabit and the fragility of our life, dreams and ambitions.

It is the delicacy, the slight feeling of claustrophobia, as if these characters, the landscape have been trapped inside the book all this time and are now suddenly released. A number of the compositions have an urgency about them, the choices made for the cut-out people from the illustrations seem to lean towards people on their way somewhere, about to discover something, or perhaps escaping from something. And the landscapes speak of a bleak mystery, a rising, an awareness of the air."


The Castle



From the installation "While You Were Sleeping:"



The artist states:
"I read in a book a Burmese legend about the soul butterfly or win-laik-pya...it is believed that a sleeping person's soul takes the shape of a butterfly and flies abroad while its owner is asleep, searching for the souls of other persons and animals and returning when the owner awakes. Burmese children are still taught never to wake a sleeping person for fear they may die, or worse, live on, without a soul."

and

"In Thailand I saw paper used in ceremonies a lot. I went to the funeral of a monk where people threw paper flowers on the pyre. I started working with paper and exhibited work here in Bradford with origami birds and pieces of old essay drafts on the floor.

I started working with books, inspired by an exhibition of Jonathan Callan, whose work really touched me, though he demolishes the book. I bought The Quiet American in Thailand and the book had all Thai inscriptions in the margin where someone had translated certain passages. It was really beautiful. When I read the book it seemed to resonate with what I had been thinking about Buddhism and the soul becoming a butterfly. I liked the idea of moths cutting through the book with a scalpel, leaving a negative image."



The Quiet American

From su blackwell