Elvis... In a lasagne?

Strangely enough, Elvis got inside my lasagne sleeping bag today for a publicity shot:

http://www.dundee.ac.uk/pressreleases/2012/may12/intothewoods.htm

Website

It's been very manic recently thanks to assessments and the run up to the DJCAD Degree Show, which I'm exhibiting in but I have managed to find some time to make a new website!  You can find it over at:

www.stephanieliddle.co.uk

Please go and have a look and let me know what you think.

Degree Show Opening is this Friday (18th of May) and is on until the following Sunday, it would be great to see you there!  I have 2 pieces in the show including the pie from my last post which has a hot water bottle inside to warm it up and two arms to hug you back.  Food at its most comforting.  Head over to the Degree Show web page to check out a sneak peak of the pie.

Cruelty to pies.

I've spent my morning torturing a poor pie, all in the name of art!  

Proper photos to follow soon.

Pasty Tax

Another quick editorial piece, this time in relation to the 'pasty tax' - the changes propossed in the recent budget to increase the tax on hot takeaway food such as pasties and rotisserie chickens to be in line with other takeaway foods which has caused many cries of "What if I like my steak bake cold?!".  It took some considerable restraint not to just eat the pastry (or at least the cooked pastry).

'We fed our pets better than we fed our children'

A quick editorial I done recently in response to this Guardian article about comfort food and recession by Matthew Fort (I'm sure you can use your imagination and imagine it in context).

"We fed our pets better than we fed our children"

Comfort Food - Lasagne Sleeping Bag

A gigantic lasagne (180cm x 90cm) which has been made as a sleeping bag for the ultimate in comfort.  Slip inside the bottom mincey layer and feel the full weight of the comfort on top of you.  

Made out of duvets and hand dyed fabric, a long and exhausting process!  The fabric for each layer was dyed (in a mop bucket in the bath) and then sewn around the duvets to create the different lasagne layers.  Luckily for me my sewing machine chose just this moment to break, ugh!  The mince layers have been screenprinted for maximum minceyness (after much stress about how to make it look right).

The lasagne was also taken to the doctors surgery (because nothing says nutter like turning up at the doctors with a giant lasagne) and Ben Bainbridge and Sally Hackett were good enough to get inside it for me and model its comforting potential!

Comfort Food - Penne Pasta

A large piece of hand-quilted penne pasta.  You can hug it, you can squeeze it, but you can't eat it.

Photos also taken in Hawkhill Medical Centre with Ben Bainbridge and additional Sally Hackett.

A more detailed shot taken in the photo studio but it does look a bit sad and squashed here.  Definitely better in person.

A Transitional Object

The outcome of a day long project in which we were each given a phrase relating to our project and asked to make an image.  I decided to take the phrase literally and made a stuffed digestive system which was later sewn onto a wooly jumper.  The photos were taken in Hawkhill Medical Centre, Dundee.

My glorious model is Ben Bainbridge, you should definitely check him out. 

Wrapping Up

Such a neglectful blogger!  The past couple of months leading on from the pasta drawings have (finally!) resulted in a clearer idea about what I'm doing in project wise, hurrah!  And have resulted in me making work which I never quite expected I would do, nice that isn't it?  I started of looking at literal meanings of phrases, first with 'A Transitional Object' (post to follow) and then moving on to look at literal comfort foods.  I've mainly been working around the phrase 'Home Comforts' and have been looking at the ideals of folk art and crafts paired with the literal meanings.  The result is:  quite humorous, a bit strange and very squishy.  What more could I ask for?

New Starts

After a summer of dissertation writing and working full time I'm finally back in the studio.  It's been a month since we started 4th year but time has been flying by!  The idea for my final year project isn't exactly concrete at the moment, the last few weeks have been spent hopping around from idea to idea, but in the mean time here are some sketchbook drawings from the last few days.

Down the Level

Over the christmas holidays I took a trip "down the level" (the level being a country lane near where I live) accompanied by my diana, a roll of slide film and a very cold mum and now, after a 2 month wait, I finally have the results!  I wanted the film cross-processed in C-41 chemicals but my local jessops refused to do so meaning the film had to be sent to Edinburgh to be processed then returned to Dundee before being sent to Germany to get prints made.  Thankfully I was in no hurry to get the photo's back and the colours in these were definately worth the wait.

Collection(s) Part 1

I've been working as part of the Student Curatorial Team at DJCAD this year with some other students and our first exhibition opened on Friday!  It's called Collection(s) Part 1 and takes inspiration from Heidegger's theory of handiness whilst juxtaposing objects from the museum collections with art work from around the art college.

The exhibition is running until 5th of March in the Lower Foyer Gallery, DJCAD, Dundee so please come down at some point, have a browse and pick up a publication.

We also have talks from Janey Muir, Matthew Jarron and Beth Lord on Tuesday 1st March between 1pm and 2pm on the subject of 'What is a museum object? What is an artwork?'.

Gallery opening times:

Monday - Friday 

9.30am - 5.00pm

Saturday 

10.30am - 4.30pm

Mamiya C220

Some cloudy photos from a cloudy day with a borrowed Mamiya C220

Forts, Dens and Hideouts

(Danny B from booooooo.com Wild Things competition)

Who wants to build a fort?

I've been thinking alot recently about forts, dens and hideouts and how they differ from person to person.  Building a fort provides the maker with comfort and a feeling of safety steming from childhood pastimes, many of which have been idealised in our minds, but which also mirrors what we try to do on a grander basis within our homes as adults.  I've been considering doing some sort of fort based project in which a group of people are invited to make their own hideouts or we make one large hideout together.  It's all very much speculation at the moment but if anyone would like to get involved please let me know!  Similarly if you just fancy making a fort for the fun of it then feel free to head round my way with your duvet.

Head over to my tumblr if you fancy eyeing up some more fort based fun.

New Years Resolution

Use the darkroom more.

I want what she's got...

Another semester finished, where does the time go?!  

My posts have been somewhat absent of any studio work for the last few months so here is a piece of actual illustration for once!  We had a quick editorial project before assessments based on sibling rivalry and this was the outcome of mine, it's suprising the difference putting your drawing into context can make.

Birds of Broughty

Church Spires

St Stephen's and West Parish Church in Broughty Ferry which was hit by lightening in May this year.

Belated Berlin

Despite it being a good couple of months since returning from a lovely week away in Berlin it's taken me until now to get any photos up!  Partly due to being at home for summer and not having anywhere handy to get 120 film developed (paired with waiting a few weeks to get them back) and partly due to sheer laziness on my part.

Alot of the photographs I took when away either came out rather on the dull side, or didn't come out at all, thanks to me being terribly sensible and forgetting to take my flash with me but here are some of the better ones.

 

Kinghorn