Moss Suitcase

This work was a development of Moss Trunk really. Moss is a loaded material not only for its aesthetic qualities but the things that moss conjures in the mind, of nature, carpeting woods and engulfing tree stumps or cities where it spreads in the shadows of back alleys around drains and other dank sources of moisture. I felt that with Moss Trunk the plant itself was quite literally too grounded. I wanted to make a piece which developed this sense of endless travel and thought of no better way to encompass this was to suspend the piece. With installation work you are asked to consider the piece in real-time and space so the fact that the piece itself was not grounded is integral to the work.

The piece itself was over a metre wide and isn't in fact a suitcase at all but was created using a large hand welded cage-like construction as the skeletal structure. The moss was all hand sewn to PVC covered mesh wire using garden wire then added to the outside of the structure. I removed the leather corners, locks and handle from an old suitcase and added them to the sculpture as an immediate familiar visual link. The inside was hollow to allow for the addition of fluid retaining liners or irrigation system for longer exhibition periods.

A work in progress...

Moss Trunk

This was an installation piece I did in a converted stall space in Brighton's Open Market. The show was titled 'Work In Progress'. This huge trunk was covered on the inside with moss which trailed up the wall and over the floor all the way to the drain. This was to suggest an uncertainty as to whether the moss was growing out of the trunk and into the drain or vise-versa. Not only does the nostalgic train trunk evoke thoughts of travel but the tiny mounds of moss themselves look like landscapes. I use moss as a material for it doesn't have roots in the same way as many other plants, is incredibly resilient in nature and in our cities resides in places such as alleys and other damp, dark dwellings. As a sculptural object alone with it's earthy smell and velvety texture I intended to create a pleasurable evocative piece which if left would continue to grow and given the right conditions could take over entirely.

compARTment

CompARTment are a group who I worked alongside to set up a group show with and are doing great things around Brighton. Contact them to get involved with some of their exciting creative projects

About

compARTment is a collective of artists, crafts people and social entrepreneurs from the slack space movement in Brighton who are looking to revitalize large empty/disused sites in the city.

compARTment aspire to transform these spaces into interim workshop and event spaces for learning, collaboration, work and community involvement.

compARTment will not only revive the empty site, but will draw positive attention to the property owner, the surrounding neighbourhood, local businesses and to the city itself.

We meet regularly in locations around Brighton and Hove.

Any comments or queries please contact us on info@compartment.org.uk.

Our email address is : info@compartment.org.uk

compARTment’s current location is : The Open Market
(Between London Rd & the Level)

Address:
UNITS 38&9
The Open Market
Marshalls Row
Brighton
BN1 4JS

Lori Nix

Lori Nix is a New York based artist who creates intricate and incredibly detailed miniature dioramas photographed to create huge scenes riddled with dark subject matter yet approached in a humorous way. Her work often deals with sociopolitical issues such as displacement

"Floater" is one of my favorite scenes to date. The viewer sees a dead body floating face down in the shallow waters, tangled amongst cattails and weeds. What I see is cardboard transformed into long leaves, cattails sculpted from polymer clay with my fingerprints still visible, and paper towel, carefully folded and painted to resemble a figure. All the elements came together to illustrate a grey, overcast, slightly rainy day, the kind of day one might stumble onto an unfortunate event. I really enjoy how this image came together to give the viewer a sense of unease, yet it's humorous if you pick the scene apart and see the materials used to construct it.

Lori Nix

Alfredo & Maria Isabel Aquilizan

Collaboration and collection, community and family, re-location and temporary homes, memory and identity are all processes and things that feature in the work of husband and wife team, Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan. Originally from the Philippines, they have recently moved to Brisbane with their children. As they literally live the issues they deal with in their artwork, the Aquilizans are particularly focused on conveying the complexity of emotions associated with social dislocation, which emanate from necessity or a need for change. In the series of developmental works associated with Project: Be-longing from 1999 to the present, the artists began by collecting personal items from Filipinos who had migrated to Australia and in their Dream Blanket projects (2002 in Japan and South Korea and 2005 in the USA), blankets and dreams, highly personal items, were collected to create installations. There are two important threads that bind these works and the artists’ practices. First, the process of collecting the personal items and objects necessitates a collaborative framework. The collaboration between the communities and the Aquilizans provides a platform for dialogue and an exchange of ideas and as a result, new understandings and relationships develop. Secondly, these used items and objects, with their cumulative histories and personal, physical contact with the individual users, seem to embody the experiences and lives of the people. When presented in vast numbers in the artists’ installations, an overwhelming sense of shared and varied lived human experiences are communicated. The Aquilizans are therefore engaged in a process of collecting and presentation that is informed by what they observe outside and inside their own lived experiences. Address (2007-2008) represents a developmental process spanning more than ten years since the first personal objects were collected 'cubed' by Balikbayan boxes. These are boxes that many Filipino migrants use to transport their personal belongings home. The Aquilizans used these boxes as moulds to 'cast' their own belongings as they moved from the Philippines to Australia. These 140 'cubes' of personal belongings are now 'bricks' used in the construction of Address, a room with a door but without a ceiling. Address was exhibited in the Gallery of South Australia in the "Handle with Care" exhibition earlier this year. Installed at South Beach Development for the Singapore Biennale 2008, Address is a powerful reminder of things transient as the building itself is earmarked for massive re-development. By Matthew Ngui For Universes in Universe magazine

Moss Door

After noticing the growing cultivations dotted throughout the city-particularly mosses, I wanted to create a piece of artwork that suggested the spirit of perseverance and captured a sense of breaking free from the restrictions that hinder the paths things grow.

This was an installation at City College's Gloucester building in December last year using an existing door.

Michel Blazy

I adore Michel Blazy's work. He works solely living things to create huge beautiful installations which decay or change and highlight the uncertainty of our condition. These incredible sculptures are formed and allowed to evolve to create these scenes of phantasmagoria. The grotesqueness of the decay that is a result of his work is balanced perfectly with his meticulous and stylish execution.