I have just set up a Facebook page (
http://www.facebook.com/annbolina) for my artwork to show it to my friends and the response has been pretty impressive and uplifting for me. I wish I had done it sooner! I have had interest in my work, words of support and encouragement (which is always good), and an offer of setting up a stall in Brick lane once a month. So this is what I am working towards now.
Given that my work is generally enormous and takes hours to make, I have been working on some stuff that is quicker to make and cheaper to sell. I would struggle to shift big, fragile and expensive pieces at Brick lane which is notoriously packed out, and full of students who have no money. Therefore I have been working on press moulding returning to my ceramic design roots back in the St Martins days. I am making what I hope will be quirky, cheaper pieces which can be packed away easily if they are bought on the day. I will however put out some of my big pieces when I am at Brick Lane and give cards to anyone who may express an interest, you never know!
Below is a picture of the work I am currently making, in the background you can see the mould I used to press the clay into shape. I am using the re-occurring nipple theme. This time on an every day object that is made to be used and touched. I like the idea of confronting people with the unexpected, nudity is still taboo especially in particular situations. Having a nipple confront you at the bottom of rather fulfilling bowl of soup while meeting your boyfriend's parent's for the first time could throw up a wide variety of responses. Placing the nipple out there for everybody to see, touch and fondle is forcing people to deal with imagery they may not expect to encounter in an everyday situation. My hope is that people would see my work as cheeky and rather humerous. However there is the risk that people of some religious or cultural backgrounds may find this kind of imagery challenging or embarrassing when used in a context they are not familiar with.
I am not really sure what my aim is with the ongoing nipple theme. I am not trying to conqour the nudity tabboo, and although there are casts of my nipples out there for the world to see, I have no intention of whipping out my real ones in any public places in the near future. I like the idea of the vessel as an analogy of the female form, an abstraction and a way of communicating concepts and ideas of womanhood, and I am sure this plays some role. However I have no clear or conclusive reasons, I guess I will keep on doing it untill I have worked it through.
I am looking to develop other symbols which I will integrate into my work as it develops. Over the last few months I have started to keep a diary of each object I make. (Mainly the larger peices). I log the time I spend on each peice and document the visual inspiration, thought processes and descsion making as the peices develop and grow, sometimes just words, other times larger peices of text. I diary for each object. I am hoping this will help me to rationalise and explore my work critically as it develops.
