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Maura Hazelden
sound, image, printed word, performance
sain, delweddau, y gair printiedig, perfformiad

milkwood gallery, 41 lochaber street, caerdyddcardiff CF24 3LS
2-10 September Tuesday-Saturday 10.00-17.00

y lle hwn, yma this space, here is an investigation of space, language, body, the possibility of flight, of presence and absence, embodiment, disembodied. It includes sound, image, printed word & performance.

“[S]ince the voice is capable of being internalized at the same time as it is externalized, it can spill over from subject to object and object to subject, violating the bodily limits upon which classic subjectivity depends”

I am currently studying: M.A. Performance Writing [University College Falmouth]. The MA is not only to re-energise my practice and consider the academic, but to shift in material and practice to writing/language spoken/written/performed. Until now my primary mode of expression, art and praxis, has been through the body and visual: training in dance then migrating into authentic movement and fine art performance. My current physical limitations indicate a shift. Through the M.A. I have been examining the body /language interface: an investigation of the use of language; finding a new way of expression; going beyond body to text, which perhaps translates again into bodily experience. My method has been to work through different media to explore ideas and themes to attempt to find some initially, intangible relationship between known interests. I have had a multi modal practice – object, performance, photographic, time-based, in some ways this has not changed; neither is it not a huge shift of themes in my work but how I handle them. The work creates gaps in my understanding, this means delving into new theory and material/techniques/technology; the continual journey of testing out and refining. I feel I have turned on an axis, looking to new forms of outcome. As ever these interests are wide ranging and follow on from previous work: the feminine, body, touch, the fold, textiles, the domestic, fragmentation, typography , space. Certain themes and ideas that have been implicit in my work are now made more explicit: space, figure in space [the page or the room], presence/absence, wings/flying.

My practice will continue to explore ways of developing a “non gallery” audience i.e. in outdoor work, community spaces; the internet; and an audience that is unaware of their status as such i.e. with objects left or posted in public space/transport. Also, I would like to utilise digital techniques and dissemination via the internet, but my immediate concerns, by way of the actual work [a desire for my practice to “talk” of space] lead me to the gallery, and, it is a relationship that I would like to rekindle. As a visual artist I see the gallery as the stage for my work: never entirely the anonymous white box, but a site with histories: an art history and its personal history. Not unlike the page. The blank page is not neutral. By choosing to show in a gallery I am placing my practice in a visual arts tradition, but the work clearly shows the material to be language
This is not a large gallery, it echoes the domestic – it is a “good” size. Within the gallery space I include a variety of material outcomes, including paper work, with reference to the book as a space: versatile yet remaining a traditional object; sound and video.

I cannot assume that the subject of my enquiry will be explicit – I have to leave the work for you, the audience, to “read”. But I leave you these notes if you want something more...

If you would like to read some of my thought processes before embarking on the MA - my reason for doing so [it is interesting to see changes of emphasis]
Here is my initial application to Dartington
and my here is my funding application to AHRC [I was 7th on a list, 6 received funding, but a good exercise in contained writing!]
I then deferred...