I have discovered Eileen O'Rourke as she has recently graduated from the MMU MA Course. Originally an Embroidery graduate her practice is mainly drawing ... they shine with sensitivity and delicacy. Some of her drawings were made from hair and stitched on to stretched bedsheets. Others were painstakingly pinpricked ... an art form that reflects her interest in embroidery.
Her artist's statement reads ...
"My work investigates the fundamentals of the process of drawing.
For over thirty years, the style of my drawings has been introspective mad doodles, which sometimes were refined but lacked evidence of any intellectual input or questioning.
During the course, the process of fundamentally investigating drawing exposed me to a whole array of questions: What am I doing? Whom am I doing it for? Why am I doing it? What audience is it aimed at?
My examination of 'Who am I'... 'Who are we'…turned into... 'What am I'; albeit a subtle change, I wanted to centre on something real, unquestionable, in fact an un-doubtable truth.
Answering the question of identity can be a hard road; a journey that passes many dead-ends in the form of philosophical thoughts that, by reasoning, have no resolution for an artist interested in identity.
As a twin, I have always had a vague interest for biological make-up of the human body but whilst struggling with this identity question, the biological aspect of self, or rather myself, became foremost and I researched twins and genetics. The ‘physical’ self seemed to be the only un-doubtable truth."
Wow thank you so much for taking interest in my art work! yes Eileen here...
ReplyDeleteCan I just say something- concerning embroidery?
I never took the degree because I was a maker of any short- I was not even into stitch. I was a artist who loved to draw. The reason I never took fine art is because I thought it too arty farty , too steeped in tradition and long drawn out explanations.
Unfortunately the Embroidery degree is no longer active at M.M.U. and will surely be missed- those were great days of discovery and friendships- going a little of the point here - I took the embroidery course because you could basically do what you wanted with out constraints of institutionalized trains of thoughts, and I wanted to understand materiality of making a work and embroidery certainly gets to the point.
So my work- I never actually did any sort of embroidery whilst on the course I experimented on film and painting- then two years later ( I did MA in Fine art! This time I was ready!) whilst struggling with the concept of identity the main thread to my work.- working with an physical aspect of identity i.e. hair- just worked as if Id done it for years .
I have to thank the tutors mainly from the BA course Nigel , Lynne , Isabel, and many others for their dedication to their students and never ending support for all the students who were lucky enough to have them as their tutors- the Embroidery course will be missed and an incredible loss to M.M.U
any artist just wants to inspire and to have lovely comments and just an interest in my work - means the world to me. Thanks Again Miss Eileen
Thankyou Eileen Great to hear from you and I hope all is going well ... i notice you have just been part of an exhibition at Blank Media in Manchester.
ReplyDeleteMichele x