'This is Me(?)', video exhibition, Glasgow, October 2020

This is my first completed project for my masters at the Glasgow School of Art. 

In ‘This is me(?)’ I explore the concept of ‘nesting’, of making a temporary accommodation into a small home through the accumulation and placing of objects, within the rules of the building.

Employing stream-of-consciousness writing, photography, and expressive painting, I explore the possibilities of homemaking within the cell-like walls of student halls (however comfortable).

Beginning with noting the blandness and starkness of the room I moved into, I investigate the objects I have chosen to represent something of myself, taking a critical approach.

I document some of these items, distancing myself from that which I had arranged according to my preference, leaving the objects as they are, just objects, devoid of my interaction with them in an attempt to discover more about myself, and question whether the objects I choose are genuinely a reflection of my interests, or props to suggest a worldly and artistic person to an unknown visitor.

Yet, despite the existence of some superficiality and materiality in some of my objects and their placement, I re-enter into a dialogue with my reasoning for choosing these objects – namely, how do they make me feel? Employing expressive water colour and digital paintings, I single out objects of particular personal resonance, and paint the emotions evoked by each one.

I conclude that it doesn’t necessarily matter how ‘genuine’ these collections are, if they help to make a ‘cell’ a home, that is enough. That is me.