Joe Taylor - MA Fine Art
I see my practice as a constant process of transformation, exploring various disciplines and processes which I then merge, assemble and collage to create complex layers, allowing the works to become intentionally complex and chaotic, whilst intuitively merging the materials and objects I use together. I am interested in creating my own visual language through the playful and intuitive processes I choose, often beginning this through the act of collecting and gathering objects and materials, excited by their vibrant colours and textures. This then acts as a catalyst to playing and merging in unexpected ways. Individual pieces become layered together, then cut up, then reassembled, collaged and wrapped, this process of gathering and constantly re-layering is what excites me to intuitively continue to investigate my own chaotic visual language.
Coming from a fashion background, I often look back to fashion for inspiration, questioning its relationship to our current culture and climate, and the desires of consumption it drives people too. I am interested in consumption and its relationship to the natural world, which is often communicated within my works through the organic and the artificial matter within them, such as a broken-down trainer merged with organic raffia material, chaotically assembled or woven together. My interests in these areas have pushed me to explore themes of anthromorhpism, animism and post humanism, investigating the relationships between human and animal through the somewhat lifelike appearances the works may take.
Moving constantly between medium and material allows me to challenge and question my works and the relationships the materials hold, constantly fluid and moving between transformation, layering and assemblage, in the organic and the artificial processes I choose to take.
