Amanda Whittle
I am an avid collector of the discarded and a sorter of detritus accumulated throughout life, delighting in such found matter which continues to form a rich collection of resource material.
In addition to found objects and collage, accompanying materials have included; wax, glass, water, soil, sand, negatives, transparencies, light, thread, paper, Letraset, coloured pencils and pens. I enjoy the tactility of such materials/objects and place emphasis on possible dialogues/associations that are created by combining these. I approach each piece with the utmost care and respect for the materials origin and journey, investigating what the chosen/found palette has to offer before carefully composing narratives; many of which have been inspired by decades of capturing the fleeting in a slowed-down method of mindful listening, incubating, processing and re-assembling.
Artworks, therefore, may have many possible readings; The images are about everybody and nobody, algorithmic in a sense, perhaps representing actual snippets of conversations and personal memories, but also fantasy’s and imagined dialogues, places unvisited, false realities, slips in time, dreamscapes, projected futures and ephemeral spaces of holding. Cyclic themes of loss, bereavement, illness, survival and regeneration interest me, as well as psychic phenomena, the healing arts, geology, conservation, archaeology and contemporary dance.
