VICTORIA SUSAN HAWKINS

The photograph is most commonly seen as an act of preservation, capturing places, people and events that are most significant to us and offering them up for contemplation. However the photograph as a commodity has become so numerous in recent years that they have become invisible to our gaze. My concern lies in the fact that soon we will face a cultural void of physical photographs and albums, perhaps cultivating an ephemeral effect on traces of our own memories. 

My imagery is carefully collected from found photographs. Through re-appropriating and manipulating the photographs the aim is to mirror the fragmentary nature of our own memories, concealing and masking the information preserved in the photograph, intimately obscuring key information so you are left to scour the image for other clues. By combining traditional print and photographic processes and combining them with contemporary methods, work is created which situates itself outside of the familiar object of the photograph whilst making visible whilst making visible the physical attributes of a photograph. Spectators are confronted with new ways of understanding and viewing the photographic object as the overlooked qualities are reassessed, allowing the photographs to be transformed into precious objects.

Education

BA(Hons) Fine Art, Loughborough University, School of Fine Art 2008-2011
Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, Chesterfield College of Art 2008 -2007

Exhibitions and Awards

'Printmakers Council Award 2011'
'Cupola Open 2011', Cupola Gallery, Sheffield
'10 Gales Prize 2011', 10 Gales Gallery, Bethnal Green, London
'Snowblind', Vyner Street Gallery, London 2011
'Smallprint: Big Impression', touring exhibition organised through Leicester Print Workshop, 2011

Publications

'Beneath the Surface' by Philllipha Abraham, 2008
'Pick 'n' Mix', in Design Week Magazine, by Yolanda Zappatera, 2010