Monday 3 February 2014

Artist Interview - Polly Willets

Description of Work

 

Numerous canvases varying in size and style with a dark colour palette and subtle figurative figures. 


How it links to Ethereal

 

These dark paintings have strong connotations with the spiritual world and auras and so have strong connections with perhaps the darker side of ethereal. The pieces have also followed a personal journey through family and during our exhibition we want our viewers to also experience a personal journey Through the Ether.  

 

 

Interview 

 

Faith managed to contact Polly via email and the following is her response about the context and concepts behind the work we are using within the exhibition. 


1. Inspirations for Current Practice.
Silent Film Stills inspire me with their black and white imagery, for the drama which they suggest and the suggested hint of a narrative, emotion portrayed through heightened sense of dramatics. Idea of preservation and of memory, nostalgia.

Nos Feratu (1922) (based on Dracula)

V.atmospheric, sense of fear and of childhood nightmares. Strong use of light and dark- shadows and lighting etc crucial to intensity of scenes.

The Cabinet of Dr Caligan. (1920)

A German horror, very dark, shadowy and sinister.
skin- in particular faces, glow with an illuminous quality creating an ethereal and ghostly quality.
Abstract and angular scenery- sense of unknown, something's not quite right, plays on our own psychological perceptions.

Victorian Spirit Photography- The victorian's obsession with death and with contacting the spirit world/lost friends and family.
-mediumship, ectoplasm, dramatic and theatrical atmospheres, seances, manifestations and communication with spirits- most often staged (using props such as scarves and photographic tricks such as layering,) create really strong starting points for paintings.


-again, the idea of a hinted narrative- clearly staged possessions etc.
-encompasses/expand upon dark, theatrical and dramatic qualities of silent film stills.

Madame Blavatsky


A medium devoted to researching the supernatural and paranormal.
Drawn to her portraits which have a strong sense of presence- a rather big and bulky woman with v. bright and captivating eyes. Initial understanding for me of the importance of presence and of direction of stare of subjects in my own paintings in creating drama, tension, emotion etc.

Victorian Death Photography
Further evidence of the Victorians obsession with death, families would pose their dead family members for remembrance photographs.
Images captured are very still, silent and eerie, especially where photograph is focused on children and babies (infant death rate much higher and more common in Victorian times.)


-Aim to memorialise dead loved ones, idea of a keepsake.
-Has inspired me to attempt to capture my own expressions of glazed, deadened and statuesque stares in my paintings.
- the idea of capturing a sense of silence.

Keepsakes
(with reference to thinking of how to display works.)
-Cameos, lockets, postcards etc. In keeping with Victorian inspirations and with miniature scale paintings.
 


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