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University for the Creative Arts   2008/2009

Julie Mecoli

Through my sculptures, installations and drawings I explore a range of spatial, material and formal possibilities within the context of contemporary sculpture. Experiences, observations and thoughts about place as well as personal biography inform my work. At this stage in my practice it is important to use real materials to give form to what are initially quite formless qualities.

I would like to use my time on the AA2A scheme to experiment with bitumen and its derivatives to generate work that will be affected by time, temperature and technical possibilities. Using this material will allow me to explore work that changes over time and moves from form to formlessness.

My intention is to exploit the possibilities of bitumen whilst exploring my interest in the experience of place and the ability of making art to enable access to more abstract, remote and invisible spaces including the space of the human unconscious.

My current work with bitumen is restricted by the size and nature of my workshop and the equipment available to me. Initially the work I make at the college will take the form of sculptures, prints and drawings based on architectural structures. Further work will be generated as photographs. The AA2A scheme will allow me the time, space and equipment to experiment on a larger scale, to re-think the ways I am currently working and to explore new possibilities generated in the studio.

I am also concerned with expanding the languages of drawing, printmaking and sculpture beyond the boundaries of conventional 'objective' representations of place to create forms that relate art, person and place in new ways; examining how contemporary art can make a distinct contribution to understanding the dynamic relationship between person and place; and expressing the results of this research in a lecture, exhibition, website and catalogue.