New Work Friday #173

Man 1, photographic postcard, adhesive bandaids, acrylic, board, 9cm x 14cm

Man 2, photographic postcard, adhesive bandaids, acrylic, board, 9cm x 14cm

Man 3, photographic postcard, adhesive bandaids, acrylic, board, 9cm x 14cm

Mother & Daughter, photographic postcard, adhesive bandaids, acrylic, board, 9cm x 14 cm

Woman 1, photographic postcard, adhesive bandaids, acrylic, board, 9cm x 14cm

Woman 2, photographic postcard, adhesive bandaids, acrylic, board, 9cm x 14cm

Woman 3, photographic postcard, adhesive bandaids, acrylic, board, 9cm x 14cm

Woman 4, photographic postcard, adhesive bandaids, acrylic, board, 9cm x 14cm

Woman 5, photographic postcard, adhesive bandaids, acrylic, board, 9cm x 14cm

Woman 7, photographic postcard, adhesive bandaids, acrylic, board, glitter, 9cm x 14cm

Woman 8, photographic postcard, adhesive bandaids, acrylic, board, 9cm x 14cm

Woman 9, photographic postcard, adhesive bandaids, acrylic, board, glitter, 9cm x 14cm

Girl 1, photographic postcard, adhesive bandaids, acrylic, board, glitter, 9cm x 14cm

Girl 2, photographic postcard, adhesive bandaids, acrylic, board, 9cm x 14cm

“My creative practice is predominately collage based, with a focus on using unconventional and salvaged materials. My current work continues my exploration of interpersonal dynamics and the workings of the psyche within the context of portraiture, following on from my previous series of personal family portraits, made primarily from band-aids and embossed vinyl ‘Dymo’ tape.My new work is a series of collage based portraits using adhesive dressings (‘band-aids’) on photographic studio portrait postcards dating from 1910 to 1930. I have cut out the exposed flesh areas from the figures in the postcards and collaged overlapping layers of band-aids inside these zones. The band-aids approximate flesh tones and are applied to broadly describe the form and contours of the body. A band-aid can imply both damage and healing, trauma and care. In my artwork I have used band-aids to entirely cover a person’s face. In doing so I engage with ideas relating to suffocation, concealment and identity, as well as personal injury and loss. I explore this psychological terrain via the process of identifying and manipulating the aesthetic qualities of band-aids; their various tones, textures, patterns and different degrees of transparency, and pairing them with the dissected portraits. I am currently undertaking an art residency at St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne. Creating this series in a decommissioned hospital room, with its attendant history, has synthesized the aforementioned concepts embodied in this work” – Savina Hopkins