Esther Appleyard

My practice is concept driven and processed based. I explore scale, inheritance and identity through constructing miniature weavings from translucent fibres and then photographing these woven structures, projecting the images on a much larger scale. I am interested in exposing the faults within the weave – a metaphor for faults that occur within our own genetic structures. These holes, gaps and differences within the weave make the images interesting. I wish to encourage debate about how differences within our genetic identity make us interesting and explore how such tiny things as our genetic codes, can have vast implication on ourselves and society. I aim to challenge preconceptions about ourselves and about art – what is mainstream art about experience and what is disability art? The images I make are then produced as digital prints on canvas, to which I add paint, glitter and varnish, exploring the difference between the digital and the random mark – man against the machine, decorating the sinister. These images reference what could be read as a bar code or a genetic ladder. Is our identity reduced to a code – a method of storing information? Or is this not information storage but a decorative series of lines? Can decoration be an appropriate medium to discuss serious subject matter and can that challenge preconceptions around conceptual art?

In addition to my own visual arts practice I am a freelance Arts Project Manager, currently working for Dada-South, amongst other organisations, managing their GoMake! commissioning programme, working in partnership with high profile art galleries, creative institutions and organisations.

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