5. Artists C.V.
• Laura Baker
• 169 Ashburnham Road
• Hastings
• East Sussex
• TN35 5LL
• Term time address:
• D103B Newarke Point
• 8 Newarke Close
• Leicester
• LE2 7GZ
• Mobile number: 07702546457
• I am currently studying for a BA Hons in fine art at De Montfort University in Leicester. I am working in lens
and digital media making films and photography.
• Personal
• 02/03/1993
• I have lived in Hastings for 19 years and I live in Leicester while I study during term time.
• Education and awards
• DMU Year 1 Fine Art BA Hons
• Exhibitions
• My most recent and only exhibitions was in July 2011 when I presented a body of work along with other
students from my college in my end of year show.
• I have been asked on a number of occasions to take photographs for events in the local area for schools
and parents. These photographs have been presented within the schools.
• At this present time I have had no publications, commissions or sales.
6.
7. Drawing Statement
I started the drawing module with life drawing. We looked at the model in a more
figurative way, looking at the spaces around her and the shadows on her body, rather
that concentrating on fine detail. I worked with alternative media and techniques; I
did drawings without looking at the paper I was drawing on. I was interested in looking
at line and volume. I used continuous line which I found really interesting and difficult,
it’s hard to get proportions right. I used a technique of drawing as though you are
wrapping wire around the body to represent volume. The first set project was
titled “journey”. I think of the word journey in many different ways and I wanted to
demonstrate this. I started by researching artists such as Tim Knowles and Catherine
Yass. These artists influenced my sketchbook and film experimentations. I went on to
work further in film and in the style of Catherine Yass. Her work is the main inspiration
for my final piece. The journey I took for my final piece is a journey I used to take as a
child, through my local park. I used a similar technique to Yass, but instead of
attaching cameras to the front and back of the bike I attached them to the wheels.
This creates a disconcerting slightly mesmerizing outcome to the film, the same way
Yass’ “Lighthouse” film does. It makes the image unclear and this ties with the
meaning behind my film. When I was a child playing in that park my life journey was
blurred and unclear, but all I cared about was there and then and that’s why the
journey never leaves the park.
8.
9. Sculpture statement
This sculpture was created in response to a previous sculpture I had made of an
unknown object. I combined my first sculpture with other students work and then
sketched areas that interested me. I looked at the contrast between circular and
geometric shapes. These were two shapes that appeared regularly is the combined
sculpture. I continued to work with cardboard, but in a slightly different form. I used
the beer mats because they incorporated text and image. This was also something
that featured heavily in the combined cardboard sculpture. George W. Hart was a big
inspiration to my work along with Keizo Ushio, both artists working with geometric
shapes.
The starting point for my next sculpture was Richard Serra’s Verb list. I
brainstormed ideas for each verb on the list and the one that stood out to me was “to
Splat”. Splat sounds like a playful word so I wanted to create something that was fun
to make. And that had a playful look to it. Jackson Pollock’s splat paintings were the
first thing that came to mind so I researched them and I used his work as my main
inspiration for my final piece. I enlarged certain areas of his work and tried to re-create
the splatter shapes with plaster. His work is very colourful so I incorporated colour
within my sculpture too.
10.
11. Lens based media statement
• For my first lens based media project I worked in the style of Neil
Hanson a fine art photographer, to photograph images of flora and fauna.
The next project was to look at photography and time, I was interested in
intervals of time and photographing what happens between these
intervals. This project then led in to my stop motion film that I created
using drawings and adding a sound track. My research led me to work in
the style of an Indian mandala pattern. The next project was working with
sound. I chose to create a sound postcard of a place that is memorable to
me, the beach. I mixed found sounds from the internet with some that I
had recorded myself to create the multi layered track. The final project
was portrait photography; I took one image of how I think people perceive
me and one image of how I want them to perceive me. My first image was
of me in my rugby kit, this is how I think people perceive me, as a butch
scary rugby player. My second image was of me in my normal clothes
holding my rugby shirt; this is how I want people to perceive me, that I am
a normal girl. I am holding the shirt to represent the fact rugby is a part of
my life but there is a lot more to me than just rugby.
14. Space statement
For this project we were given the title space and could interpret this how we
liked. After brainstorming some ideas I chose to look at my mind as a space.
There are many things that fill my mind some thoughts I have control over
and some I don’t. I decided to focus on the thoughts I don’t have control over,
my fears and the emotions I show physically when I experience these fears.
My main fears being blood tests and hospitals. My work started expressively,
looking at work by Kandinsky and de Kooning. Fiona Banner’s word-scape’s
inspired some of my sketch book experiments and the idea of including text in
my paintings.
I moved in to digital work from here and used social networking to ask my
friends about their fears. I used the answers to create two large canvases in
the style of Brian Rea. I then looked more at video pieces and performance
art. Gillian Wearing and Orlan both influenced my experiments and final
piece. My final piece is a split screen video showing the physical attributes of
three emotions that regularly fill my mind. The three videos run
independently of each other and the emotions overlap and change.
15. Self directed statement
This project is based around the word free and how we react to this
word. I started this self-directed project by looking at media and
subjects I like to work in. I chose photography and specifically wildlife
photography. I looked at artists such as Steve Bloom and Joel Sartore
and took photographs of my own but I didn’t feel the project could
really progress. The words free came to mind while I was
photographing a squirrel; the only way I could get a picture of it was to
give it free food. This gave me the idea of looking at how humans react
to the word free in comparison to animals.
This led me into video work and involving the public in my art. Marina
Abromovic and Orlan inspired my video experiment with public
participation. My final piece is a photography piece revolving around
the idea of being consumed by consumerism. Andy Warhol’s repeat
prints were the main inspiration for this final piece
