Amber Mottram
I am interested in describing the potency of creation that happens in the mind in non-art spaces and through periods of confinement. I work with objects that visually stir something in me within my domestic sphere; children toys, clothes pegs, tea towels, elastic bands and envelope patterns. Reassembling them, inverting them, and using negative space to abstract them and free them aesthetically from their original function. To present these objects anew as art works means re-evaluating their function and their formal properties.
I am also interested in the gaze of non animate objects, particularly my house and through the medium of film wish to explore how our lives are viewed from these overlooked perspectives. The film ‘This Too Shall Pass’ was created from a place of enforced tedium and ‘not doing’ I wanted to explore the dichotomy of apathy and creativity that has been my experience of motherhood. The film depicts being both maternally attentive and artistically responsive during what felt like the interminable days of childhood. The audio is familial interactions recorded on a Zoom 200 capturing the tension of completing domestic activities whilst engaging in ‘make believe’ games.
Through my work I aim to describe the duality of existing in the mundane and the ability to transcend it though art.