Mairi Taylor


 

Statement of practice


     
 

My work, in a way, fragments the world as well as re-presenting it by staging relations in time and space.  The disintegration of a given scene is reassembled and re-presented through objects and images to create a scene that is now, while often referring to a scene that is past.  I work primarily with photographs and found and made objects to create sculptures and installations.

 

Over the last three years various strands have developed in my work that continue to be linked by theme and practice.  My works resonate with recurring traces that operate across space and time, space of the viewer and virtual space of the image.  To be acquainted with time is to feel the distance between two points, to be aware of a temporal dimension.  I believe that being presented with object and image in conjunction forces a thinking of the time between, the space between.

 

I continue to work with photographic images and objects, developing new ways in which to present finished works.  This could be in an installed space as in the installation Growth 2007 or in a staged environment. The objects that I use in my pieces and the arrangement I place them in often indicate performance through their staging and ‘perfomative’ potential.  In November 2008 I had an opportunity to further explore this when I collaborated with a performer/writer and a musician to develop a sculptural landscape that they could then improvise within.  The subsequent performance, The Lost Hat, allowed me to develop a body of work, installed and displayed as an exhibition that then transformed into a stage and a performance space.  The interventions of the performers further transformed the art works, allowing their quality as ‘action objects’ to be released.

 

The starting point for The Lost Hat was an image that was then redisplayed within the final piece as a backlit sculpture.  I am interested in displaying the image as object and I am continuing to develop works that allow me to present the image within an arrangement of objects or installed in a space.  This allows me to explore the space between as the viewer must shift the gaze from the whole to the space within the image.  In the work Mid 2007 I set up a series of surfaces and planes building on the resonance between the materiality and form of the sculpture and content of the image. 

 

Within my work, whether a stand alone piece or an installation, I seek to engage the viewer in a shifting perspective, encouraging them to view the whole and discover the detail.