visualfields      
     

 

 

Far Left Humpston: Exodus, felt scultpture

 

After many years painting and further honing her three dimensional skills working as a Production Designer in the theatre and film industries of the UK, Charlotte Humpston, a British artist, who is shortly moving to California has been continually concerned with Connectivity & Disconnectedness asking the question: “How do we perceive, make real and effective choices about what is important in society?” Her previously widely exhibited installations and sculptures have begged these following questions: 

  • How do we deal with present world issues in the light of what we want for our future?
  • How do we recognise 50% of the world’s populace as equal to the other 50% and then:
  • How do we extend that equality beyond gender, race and religion?

Working with diverse materials such as fibre, felt, cloth, felt, copper wire, video, film and photography she builds her installations and transformational sculptures as a personal response to issues presented on contemporary media platforms. Her intention is to concentrate on the essence of what is being presented, through her medium, to trigger thoughts and ideas in the viewers’ minds as they contemplate her work. Some of her recent installations were a response to the Syrian refugee crisis: 

  • With Raft of Medusa - made from recycled wood and old sail cloth referenced the work of Theodore Gericault the early 19th century French painter, who’s work depicted the death by drowning of a shipwrecked crew, in referencing this Humpston aimed to evoke the basic human plight of refugees crossing seas.
  • With Exodus - a huge red cloak hung on the wall with two piles of discarded clothes neatly folded in front of the wall hanging in red and blue stacks. On closer look the cloak too is made up of recycled and felted clothes of trousers, socks, blouses, children jumpers, dresses.
  • In Moving Through, stretched golden yarn is hung in multiple strands creating a corridor that appears to be fragile yet solid, depending on your viewpoint. In this work she reminds us of the experience of refugees as they move through immigration control in the final stage of their journeys into their chosen country of choice: The corridor of course is a ‘man-made idea’ and does not in fact exist, yet the experience of it for a refugee is fraught with promise and anticipation and in many cases disappointment.
  • An earlier installation, Cradelbridge was dedicated to the sudden & unexpected death of a close friend’s daughter. Deeply affecting her, Humpston ties together the tragic words of the mother, heard on audio, accompanied by four 4ftx4ft squares on the gallery floor: a painting, a photograph, a bed of soil with shards of broken china lastly a video projected onto a crumpled felt shroud. This work is evidence of a life and death and the nature of the landscape the child was born into, where the viewer can witness unfolding descriptions of life and death.
  • In a single screen 65 minute video made with artist Terry Flaxton of Visualfields, created over 5 years, To Stand And Stare: A Somerset Landscape is an homage to the landscape of where the first Christian Church was erected circa 30AD by converted Roman Legionaries which then became the centre of the spread of Christianity through Europe from the East.
  • In the series Pods Humpston made several small-scale sculptures from copper wire & felt and one much larger piece made from woven insulation blankets and wool insulation material. Copper has the highest electrical conductivity rating and wool has the highest insulation rating which impact in matters of survival. The red/orange pastel and energetic drawings accompany the sculptures, which are womb-like and egg-shaped to evokeideas of connectivity and incubation.
  • In her most recent installation Golden Bough Charlotte wrapped trees in a Somerset orchard using golden survival blankets, the effect of which was to evoke ideas around insulation, sustainability and protection in the audience.
  • This newly proposed work Transformation and Sacrifice (working title) is the beginning of a new phase of works that Visualfields hope to bring to Grace Cathedral (and potentially Bristol Cathedral) and this first of which carries ideas of womanhood, sustainability and celebration of diversity.
     
      Charlotte Humpston          
     

Charlotte Humpston, Paintings, Textile and Digital Installations

eflyer Excerpt of full size portraits      

Charlotte Humspton Artists Statement November 2017

 
Charlotte Humpston: Production Design Portraits Projects
Glastonbury
Bristol
Excerpt from Installation Venice
Information and Resources For Teachers Somerset Carnivals
 
Interviews with Working People of Somerset  
 
  Terry Flaxton
 

Art

  Cinematography
             
             
          A ten minute tour of a recent exhibition      
             
             
           
      fsgh      
          Above, Flaxton, 2 x 60 Triptych's world portrait projects      
           
           
     
     
  Art as it is lived, Art as it is applied, Art as people understand it  
     
     
   
     
     
     
           
           
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