Bradford School of Arts and Media   2009/2010

Barbara Greene

I should like to use the AA2A opportunity as a developmental research project. My MA work and all subsequent work has been connected with the idea of 'material memories of inhabited space', that is, to do with fragmented pieces of evidence relating to the geographical growth and socio-economic experience of a particular section of the Aire valley. I have now reached a stage where I am regularly invited to hang exhibitions and initiate ideas for exhibitions and to show my own work. This has provided interesting opportunities, but tends to inhibit the development my own artwork. I have felt for some time that I need a space to focus on taking my work to a new level, and for this I need a creative, supportive and professional environment. Symbols and signifiers developed in my earlier work draw directly from the subject matter and appear in my subsequent work fairly frequently. As my work matures these signifiers are developing dynamics of their own not quite so closely linked to their origins and new ones are appearing. I want to work with these to make a visual language which will still reflect the original source but become something new. I have used many different techniques relating to different aspects of my interests, and now I want to explore remaking new combinations of techniques using a new abstract language to develop my work to a deeper and richer stage. I envisage that experimenting with new techniques and combinations of techniques will be a large part of this project. In particular, I have enjoyed working in three dimensions and want to continue to explore, perhaps using the laser cutter to make embossed and cut out surfaces, which might then become surfaces for print. By using paint and print/photography and print, cut out, overlapping and layered and using abstract images I am hoping to move towards a deeper and more satisfying body of new work.