An Exhibition of Wigs
by Sarah Eyre
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Dear Sarah, Thank you for your interview. How do you identify yourself and your work? I guess I would define myself as some kind of lens-based artist, or multimedia artist as I use a range of different methods to make my work - most recently traditional collage techniques (by that I mean literally cutting paper based materials), and stop frame animation techniques where I've turned still images and collages in to animated gifs - so I guess I'm working with digital materials too. |
Photo: courtesy of the artist |
However, my practice is very rooted in photography - and although my work doesn't always look like photography in a traditional sense, it’s informed by photographic theories, and it’s many of these theories that provide a framework for me to push against.
So maybe I'm actually a photographer with an identity crisis.
How do you choose your themes for each project?
I’m doing a practice-based PhD, which means my themes have been pretty focused around the relationship between things that we wear, and the human body. I’ll probably continue this for a long time as it’s such a fascinating subject.
I tend to be drawn to themes that are to do with how we interact with the wider world – especially the non-human parts of the world – for example, things… Objects and things – how we invest them with meaning, how we interact with them. I’m particularly interested in how we interact with broken things.
Do you pay more attention to technical details or the overall effect of a series?
Both really. They inform each other. It’s an ongoing process.
Who are some of the artists who have influenced you?
Louise Bourgeois, Linder Sterling, Ellen Gallagher, Sarah Lucas, Mona Hatoum, John Stezaker, Emma Hart, Francis Bacon, Lorna Simpson. There are many more – but these are the ones that I currently keep coming back to.
Is it easier or more difficult to be a visual artist/photographer in today’s world? Why?
I really don't know. To make a living from art has always been difficult. Because of the internet we are so aware of the amount of work out there / artists out there so it can feel overwhelming. However, there are lots of advantages to being an artist now - the ease of research, the ease of networking, the amount of places to get your work seen, the breaking up of the established art hierarchies in terms of gallery representation, and of course the access to technology is much easier now.
So maybe I'm actually a photographer with an identity crisis.
How do you choose your themes for each project?
I’m doing a practice-based PhD, which means my themes have been pretty focused around the relationship between things that we wear, and the human body. I’ll probably continue this for a long time as it’s such a fascinating subject.
I tend to be drawn to themes that are to do with how we interact with the wider world – especially the non-human parts of the world – for example, things… Objects and things – how we invest them with meaning, how we interact with them. I’m particularly interested in how we interact with broken things.
Do you pay more attention to technical details or the overall effect of a series?
Both really. They inform each other. It’s an ongoing process.
Who are some of the artists who have influenced you?
Louise Bourgeois, Linder Sterling, Ellen Gallagher, Sarah Lucas, Mona Hatoum, John Stezaker, Emma Hart, Francis Bacon, Lorna Simpson. There are many more – but these are the ones that I currently keep coming back to.
Is it easier or more difficult to be a visual artist/photographer in today’s world? Why?
I really don't know. To make a living from art has always been difficult. Because of the internet we are so aware of the amount of work out there / artists out there so it can feel overwhelming. However, there are lots of advantages to being an artist now - the ease of research, the ease of networking, the amount of places to get your work seen, the breaking up of the established art hierarchies in terms of gallery representation, and of course the access to technology is much easier now.
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As an art consumer, what types of experiences do you seek from art of different genres?
Well, I like to be challenged, excited and inspired by all genres. I’m not that bothered by the distinction between genres. In fact, I probably prefer art that escapes traditional genres. However, different kinds of work affect me in different ways. I like to be moved and informed by art, too.
Often, but not exclusively, photography can tell stories about people and their circumstances in a way that’s very visceral. I felt that recently when looking at Dana Lixenberg’s photographs. I also love fashion photography. I find some of the most experimental and visually interesting work in the pages of style magazines. In fact, I think many so-called fashion photographers, especially some of the younger female ones like: Viviane Sassen, Coco Capitan and Harley Weir communicate far more about gender politics than much fine art / documentary work I see.
When was the last time you felt frustrated for not achieving what you had set out to do for whatever reason and how did you get over it?
I feel frustrated and under-achieving every day. Like most artists, I'm juggling lots of other things and trying to make time to make work. So sometimes I get overwhelmed by all the different things I should be doing, then I end up procrastinating...familiar story I guess.
What do I do to get over it? I don't really, I just keep chipping away at it... I don’t think there’s an answer Deadlines focus the mind. I do try and make sure I line up plenty of those. Switching projects also gets me out of a rut. That’s why I like to have a few different things on the go, too. Sometimes flipping an idea on its head, trying it out using a different material, or medium works.
Where do you take refuge from the modern madness and recharge your batteries for more work ahead?
I'm not sure I do take refuge, I like the modern madness... But when I need a break I do the things most people do - go for a walk, go for drinks or watch bad TV. Regular trips to the seaside would be the dream refuge.
What is the most hopeful story you have heard lately that has inspired you tremendously?
In art terms the artist Phyllida Barlow is inspiring. She has been making work for years, whilst teaching and bringing up her kids. Her work didn't really take off in a big way until she was in her middle age. She's now in her 70s and still producing ambitious work. In fact she's exhibiting at the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. I think that goes to show that you just need to keep doing it, keep working.
What are you currently working on?
I'm currently making some new work for a solo show at Manchester's (UK) Paper Gallery.
I've been making work that explores women's wigs for some time now. My work broadly explores what it means to be female and what it means to ‘be’ a body. For me, wigs present themselves as fascinating objects through which to explore these questions. Not just because, historically, the wig’s materiality (the way the hair of the wig came from different people, and animals) has often caused it to ‘erode’ our sense of the body’s boundaries. Additionally, rather than simply mask or project a wearer’s existing identity, the wig often leads the wearer into a fulfillment of new identities.
A woman’s wig, can be perceived, much like hair, as a signifier of gender – or even a stand in for the female body. This is how I’m using the wig in my photography. I’m interested in opening up more fundamental properties of the wig to explore their own interior spaces.
I’m experimenting with bringing together the interior and exterior space by cutting through my photographs of wigs. Holes connect inside and outside. They can suggest incompleteness – to the form or the body, a way of suggesting multiple reconfigurations between wig, body and gender. For me it’s a way of highlighting the fact that the feminine signifiers of the wig, or the feminine illusion presented by the wig, is fragile and unstable. By cutting into it I am hoping to reveal its instability. It’s also how I explore the possibility of the body and the visualization of gender on the body as a constant state of change.
That said, my work is starting to become a kind of meditation on what might be inside the wig’s interior. It’s a space that doesn’t really exist in a physical sense as it’s designed as a surface that’s molded to the wearer’s head rather than an actual space. But to reveal it, even in a suggestive way, can open a wig up to other readings.
Well, I like to be challenged, excited and inspired by all genres. I’m not that bothered by the distinction between genres. In fact, I probably prefer art that escapes traditional genres. However, different kinds of work affect me in different ways. I like to be moved and informed by art, too.
Often, but not exclusively, photography can tell stories about people and their circumstances in a way that’s very visceral. I felt that recently when looking at Dana Lixenberg’s photographs. I also love fashion photography. I find some of the most experimental and visually interesting work in the pages of style magazines. In fact, I think many so-called fashion photographers, especially some of the younger female ones like: Viviane Sassen, Coco Capitan and Harley Weir communicate far more about gender politics than much fine art / documentary work I see.
When was the last time you felt frustrated for not achieving what you had set out to do for whatever reason and how did you get over it?
I feel frustrated and under-achieving every day. Like most artists, I'm juggling lots of other things and trying to make time to make work. So sometimes I get overwhelmed by all the different things I should be doing, then I end up procrastinating...familiar story I guess.
What do I do to get over it? I don't really, I just keep chipping away at it... I don’t think there’s an answer Deadlines focus the mind. I do try and make sure I line up plenty of those. Switching projects also gets me out of a rut. That’s why I like to have a few different things on the go, too. Sometimes flipping an idea on its head, trying it out using a different material, or medium works.
Where do you take refuge from the modern madness and recharge your batteries for more work ahead?
I'm not sure I do take refuge, I like the modern madness... But when I need a break I do the things most people do - go for a walk, go for drinks or watch bad TV. Regular trips to the seaside would be the dream refuge.
What is the most hopeful story you have heard lately that has inspired you tremendously?
In art terms the artist Phyllida Barlow is inspiring. She has been making work for years, whilst teaching and bringing up her kids. Her work didn't really take off in a big way until she was in her middle age. She's now in her 70s and still producing ambitious work. In fact she's exhibiting at the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. I think that goes to show that you just need to keep doing it, keep working.
What are you currently working on?
I'm currently making some new work for a solo show at Manchester's (UK) Paper Gallery.
I've been making work that explores women's wigs for some time now. My work broadly explores what it means to be female and what it means to ‘be’ a body. For me, wigs present themselves as fascinating objects through which to explore these questions. Not just because, historically, the wig’s materiality (the way the hair of the wig came from different people, and animals) has often caused it to ‘erode’ our sense of the body’s boundaries. Additionally, rather than simply mask or project a wearer’s existing identity, the wig often leads the wearer into a fulfillment of new identities.
A woman’s wig, can be perceived, much like hair, as a signifier of gender – or even a stand in for the female body. This is how I’m using the wig in my photography. I’m interested in opening up more fundamental properties of the wig to explore their own interior spaces.
I’m experimenting with bringing together the interior and exterior space by cutting through my photographs of wigs. Holes connect inside and outside. They can suggest incompleteness – to the form or the body, a way of suggesting multiple reconfigurations between wig, body and gender. For me it’s a way of highlighting the fact that the feminine signifiers of the wig, or the feminine illusion presented by the wig, is fragile and unstable. By cutting into it I am hoping to reveal its instability. It’s also how I explore the possibility of the body and the visualization of gender on the body as a constant state of change.
That said, my work is starting to become a kind of meditation on what might be inside the wig’s interior. It’s a space that doesn’t really exist in a physical sense as it’s designed as a surface that’s molded to the wearer’s head rather than an actual space. But to reveal it, even in a suggestive way, can open a wig up to other readings.
