Lauren Van Helmond

Staffordshire University: BA Hons Fine Art

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Artist Statement:

Cinema's ability to entice an audience to become fascinated by seemly images and to see women as objects of desire has become a focal point in my work.

My interest in films' glamorisation of the hooker has developed from previously looking at women in vulnerable situations, and how the images I had produced provoked film memories and allowed for imagined scenarios.

In embracing cinematic imagery I have attempted, through painting, to present images, similar to that of film stills or advertising posters, which have associations with films that depict prostitution. The images are painted in flat blocks of colour, and not in a realistic manner, to show the affectation of the subject painted.

For the graduate exhibition I wanted to portray the idea of the big city at night. A place where the 'everyday' ceases to exist. Where life, mysterious and exciting lurks on the street corner.

The painting of the distinctive yellow taxis on the streets of a wet New York at night, along with a man propositioning a woman is an image reminiscent to many large screen movies. Painted in a simplified manner reduces the explicit detail that would be seen on a cinema screen, so at first glance it may be unclear to the observer what they are witnessing. This is designed to intrigue the viewer and make them aware of their position as interpreters of the image, rather than passive observers.

The scale and content of the image in turn places the observer in a position where they ask themselves questions as to what they are witnessing and forcing them to acknowledge their interest and question why they are intrigued.

The scale of the image acts to give the overwhelming and unnerving impression to that of a cinema screen.

 

Lauren Van Helmond

Staffordshire University: BA Hons Fine Art

For sales, commissions and to send comments to the artist.

 

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