interactive portfolio
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contentsI feel it and it is
Align
Mimic Flood plan Remnant
Submerge
Horizon
Element
Swell
Experimental video
Remnant
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‘I feel it and it is’ is a series of three refined plaster casts, Alex, Hazel and Jenny, attempting to capture the negative space created when a body is contorted into the foetal position
I feel it and it isrefined plastereach 200 x 300 x 400mm 2011
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Aligncord, cotton2000x1200mmx1200mm2012
For three weeks we drove across Germany; Cologne, Dusseldorf, Kassel, Hamelin, Berlin and back. By our side all the way were pylons, strung out across the landscape as far I could see. Wires transforming tangled webs of grey metal to elegant strands outstretched over dense green forest. I tried to capture this basic element in Align, providing the viewer with the same sense of clarity the pylons provided in passing.
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Mimicmixed media installationdimensions variable2012
“A lake is a landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.” -Henry David Thoreau
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On a bleak train journey along the east coast main line, after several days of heavy rain I became enthralled by the role reversal in the fields that shouldered the tracks. The hedges which once acted as boundaries, were now the only defining lines of the saturated landscape. They no longer appeared as borders but a maze of grid like pathways. Flood Plan is an automated installation, intended to speak of the transformation of an object in the occurrence of a flood.
Flood Planmixed media installation2500 x 2000 x 500mm2013
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Remnantcharcoal, ink300x300mm2013 From above the remains of the town stood out like shards of something that was once whole
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Submergerefined plaster, wooden frame1500x1000x100mm2013
Submerge is a continuation of the ideas founded in Flood Plan in an abstratced form, exploring the effects of flooding on mountaneous landscapes, causing simple mounds to resemble something all togther more human
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ElementPortland stone150x200x150mm2013
I arrived in Portland, the most beautifully desolate place I have ever been, surrounded by nothing but white stone, cloudless skies and searingly cold blue sea. For five days the sun scorched the landscape, evaporating every drop of water once held within the rock. Heat and chisel were the only things that seemed to be able to affect the environment.
Speaking to a local I learnt the effects fire can have on limestone – turning it into a potentially volatile substance, quicklime. With this in mind I set about building small stone kilns; constructing them in a similar way to which one would a stonewall. The kilns were small, stable and reasonably well insulated. I collected dry wood and seaweed from the endless pebble beach and loaded it into the kilns. I added in my pieces of stone, which I had carved to resemble the sun, and lit the kilns.
Several hours later the fire burned itself out and the kilns became cool enough to dismantle. Each of the stones that made up the walls were partially masked in a metallic black blanket, as were my suns.
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I carved a second design- this time a concave half sphere, into which I poured a small amount of sea water. I set the stone and its contents upon a high up rock and left it in the baking sun. By the end of the first day the water had completely evaporated, leaving behind a layer of tiny shimmering crystals. Each day I returned to the rock to replenish the sea water, only for it to be evaporated once more.
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Screen shots from experimental video2013 http://www.hazelstephenson.co.uk/#experimental-video