Personal Statement & Key Points

Personal Statement

The focus of my work is to explore the often-misinterpreted impulse control disorder called Trichotillomania, whereby a person has the irresistible urge to pull hair out anywhere on the body. Through the use of scanography, sculpture and video I aim to produce the closest representation of my own personal experience, while at the same time expressing emotions that have more general currency with any audience. My most recent work shows the conflict between appreciation and frustration from what my hands are capable of and the behavioural stages of impulsivity while exploring visuals, sounds and feelings that can cause relaxation.

Professional Website

www.rachelannesmyth.com 

Documentation

1. Jar of Hair made me realise that i don’t want to use hair in my artwork anymore because it’s too specific.

2. Sponges were used to replicate the sounds heard when brushing hair in order to avoid the impulse when recording.

3. Cling film  was the first material i used to extend the tension within my hands.

4. Movement to the scans made the hand gestures become unnatural and disturbing.

5. SAAVE is a project that allowed me to adapt my work to raise the awareness of mental health in general by reaching out to a wider audience.

Contextualisation

1. Beckie J Brown was one of the first artists to influence the exploration of Trichtillomania within my artwork.

2. Wave // David Altmejd gave me ideas on how to develop my hand casts and the different ways i can show the damage each hand gesture can make.

3. Give or Take // Louise Bourgeois make me think about the conflict between feeling appreciation and hatred for what my hands are capable of.

4. Knitting Noodles // Cynthia D Suwito led me to question the importance of patience and mundane activities, especially when recovering from poor mental health.

5. Shore Scene // Cevdet Erek reminded me of ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) videos and made me question whether to start recording the process of my pieces and consider live performance.

Edit and reprint

For some reason, probably due to accidentally choosing the wrong scanner settings, a few of the images are of lower quality in comparison to the others. This wasn’t noticeable until the images were blown up to A2 and printed for the show. With limited time left, i quickly decided to erase the large smudges and to sharpen the detail before reprinting. However, now the little specs of dust and hair are more prominent and i’ll have to make a decision as to whether to have a low quality image, or an image that looks like it needs a dusting. To some extent the aesthetic flaws of using a scanner work to my advantage, there is only so much i can do to avoid my hair from appearing on scanner because it’s usually clinging onto my clothing throughout the day.

Support // Lorenzo Quinn

The instillation of the monumental sculpture for the 2017 Venice Biennale has recently been finished. The piece consists of two giant hands stretched out from the water in order to support the hotel. It’s a visual statement against climate change and the rising sea levels that effect the city. It has influenced me to revisit making 3D forms of my hands after i’ve finished my degree, using a material other than plaster and clay. I would like to explore the scale of my work like i have done with the prints. I’m disappointed that i will not be attending this years Biennale because i’d love to see this piece of work in person.

Latex gloves

 

I associate latex gloves with the medical industry and i’ve used them to respond to my first experiences of reaching out for help, visiting doctors who inspected by hair after a few seconds only to remove their latex gloves and repeatedly tell me that pulling out my hair is a habit and when i grow, so will my hair. Before finally being diagnosed with Trichotillomania but still not provided with the help i needed.

The left and middle scans show me clinging on to the gloves in desperation whereas the right shows a glove blending into the wrist and appears to become a second skin that can’t be removed.

Bubble Wrap

Popping bubble wrap is widely known to be satisfying and can directly relate to the sounds and sensations from pulling out strands of hair. The scan on the right is in response to an earlier scan that was made to show the movements of my hands.

Shore Scene Soundtrack // Cevdet Erek

The Shore Scene Soundtrack is based on a simple idea where Erek runs his hands over a carpet to imitate the sound of the seaside based on the recording in his memory, the same carpet is used in an exhibition whereby the viewers are invited to touch the carpet for to experience it for themselves. He also displays a book with information and instructions on how to achieve certain sounds.

 

Binaural Sound

 

To record subtle sounds, i used a microphone that can record sounds from different areas of the room to imitate the way ears hear sound. This has been successful with quieter sounds however, bubble wrap can cause sharp popping sounds and will need to order a foam cover to soften the sounds if i am going to incorporate this into my work.

Untitled // Vadim Stein

In this image by Vader Stein, the material almost acts as a second skin and where the material stretches seems to create tension. I find it interesting that the parts of the body that aren’t covered are known to be the most expressive. The hand positions seem to be contradicting each other, one in despair and one providing support. The piece has influenced me to explore materials that could mimic a second skin and to use conflicting hand gestures in my own artwork.

Anywhen // Philippe Parreno

When visiting the Tate, the turbine hall had been transformed into an immersive experience that challenged my perception of time and space. I was invited to get a blanket and lay on the floor to experience the stimulation of a variety of senses with the use of acoustics, sound lighting, flying objects and film. Anywhen is a constantly changing exhibition that will evolve over a six month period. The sequences were triggered by software informed by micro organisms that react to the elements through a bioreactor situated at the back of the hall. I found that this was an interesting setup that challenged the use of the exhibition space and i has influenced me to explore expressing emotions that i’ve experienced through a variety of sensations.

Self-Portrait (Hands Spread on Knees) // John Coplan

Since 1984, the subject of Coplans work has been his own body, focusing on individual parts such as hands and feet but excluding his face. He thought of the body as being able to express a language originating in a collective unconscious; universal, primordial and direct. The photographs are often cropped, drastically enlarged and close-up with a sense of familiarity as well as ambiguity. Coplan avoids posing with recognised symbolic gestures which is something i have struggled to do within my own practice. I often attempt to capture gestures unique to the experience of a mental health condition yet sometimes analysed as something entirely different. I am no stranger to cropped and close-up images but i plan on experimenting with the scale of my prints.