Past Presence: Contemporary reflections on the main line. for more info on artists involved go to www.brynmawr.edu/visualculture/Dion.htm

below work by artist Sheila Pepe

old wounds never heal

wounds of love I (Death) by Jan Florence Garven (Jangarven.com)Trying to display the work for this self initated project has proved problematic, as the intent of the work is not fully realised, so I am left with displaying a work in progress.

With the previous project, art as a site of cultural representation, I started form a place of fact i.e. human remains preserved to show the fate of those who where unfortunate enough to become ill and die - an uncomfortable reality. The initial premise was death and decay, as a biological process and myself finding the beauty in the decay. I also feel it was about a simple form of metamorphosis. The specimens in jars that I looked at in the Huntarian did not undergo a complete change. Their original shape still being recognisable, but that have become almost sanitised by the 'bleaching process' of preservation.

The intention was to continue and develop ideas generated in the previous project, with lots of experimentation using a variety of media. I wanted to incorporate natural and man made objects into the work with a veiw to 'mimicking ' the shape or texture of the original specimen.

I also started to look into wabi-Sabi, "the art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in nature, of accepting the natural cycle of growth, decay and death." I started to reaslise that objects that I had collected over a period of time, for me, fell into this catagory. The fragments of trees, shells, plant life had once had a purpose, had been alive or contained life, but were now dried out, shrivelled up or shards of their previous forms.

Then we come onto wounds, where the skin has been broken. "From the Classical period to the Medieval period, the body and the soul were believed to be intimately connected, based on several theories put forth by the philospher Plato. Wounds on the body were believed to correlate with wounds to the soul an vice versa; wounds were seen as an outward sign of an inward illness. Thus, a man who was wounded physically in a serious way was said to be hindered not only physically but spiritually as well. If the soul was wounded, that wound may also eventually become physically maifest revealing the true state of the soul."

"Wounds were seen as writing ont the 'tablet' of the body"

The skin has been broken, some wounds cut too deeply in flesh or the soul and never heal, skin grows over open sores, words tear flesh 'wounds may become so deep that they resemble craters'

Torn edges stiched and made whole- inserting something precious that has a memory a moment in time in it's own right. That was once alive and growing or protecting growth inside and combing the two to create something new.

wood and cloth

a day at the beach

wood work begins incorporating objects found at the beachwith chair legs found in wood workshop. carving and sanding of chair legs to change their form

drawings of found objects and medical operations

combining carved chair legs and beach finds

beach finds

pouring wax on the wood

combining stitched 'wounds' or openings within metal frames