UCA Farnham Fine Art Student Profile 2014 - Heidi Mellish

What is your work about and what informs it?

My work centres on exploring the appropriation of objects and how they are imbued with  nostalgia. The narrative tendency created by nostalgia for the past and how it creates and shifts our values. 
The importance of this work comes with the growing separation we have from our particular pasts, the gap increasing the possibility for longing, but also deception of the mind and what it remembers. The idea of nostalgia has been of interest to me in light of it's deceptions. The term first being coined in the late 19th Century as a medical term describing the homesickness Swedish soldiers suffered from when away at war. Today it is almost fashionably tossed around as a romantic description, evoking a sense of longing for a better time. I guiltily enjoy this modern interpretation of nostalgia, however am equally concerned with exploring the untruths with which it weaves and fools us with, often exploited deliberately.
Grayson Perry's work, which fuses the traditional medium of pottery and craft with contemporary adaptations of ancient rituals, has been a mainstay in my research and influence this year. He has a keen awareness of the cultural traditions which still influence us today, modern rituals that emulate ancient ways and cleverly using humour making it accessible  I have been hugely influenced in my approach to choosing objects and reading them in terms of what they say about a perceived type of 'Englishness' we have of ourselves. The 'Englishness" is a construction grounded in nostalgia for something that didn't exist, but is romanticised and mythologised. His 2013 Reith Lectures gave me an insight into his take on this subject matter, and it was exciting to realise the relevance and appreciation that went with it.

How did you resolve your work for your final exhibition?

I wanted to create a space that would display the appropriated objects like cultural artefacts and would appear to have been collected so the artefacts could be examined in a new context and relationship between the objects could be explored. The cold interior aimed to evoke this nostalgia with visual cues via the objects and materials used in the space with which the viewer might feel some relation to.
There were some practical installation issues that I had to overcome and it made me look at curation and installation as one entity and appreciate the practical solutions that need to be considered with a hang. From the process of producing the degree show exhibition I learnt that the initial plan for a certain curatorial idea will more than likely not be what will happen. It is easy to get hung up on an initial vision, but it is essential that you are flexible and remain true to the concept, it could make or brake a piece.

What do you think is the most significant thing that has helped you during your time a UCA Farnham?

The most significant thing which has helped me during my time at UCA is the constant support of fellow students. I couldn't have fully comprehended the investment of time the course has you on you mentally, so having a studio with friends and colleagues who are in the same position as you and ready to talk through a piece of work was priceless and well as help with practical issues. The calibre of tutors and visiting artists on hand to engage in critique was also something that fuelled the continual progression of the work.

What are you planning next?




I am now looking for opportunities to work in galleries hoping to build my knowledge within the arts sector. I am particularly interested in developing my curatorial skill set, expanding the work that I have already had with artist and curator Mindy Lee. I also considered doing an MA and was accepted onto a course, but I would like to make a considered attempt at establishing myself as an artist and developing my practice further first.

UCA Farnham Fine Art Student Profile 2014 - Jasmine Rogers

What ideas have you explored in your work?

The currency of images interests me and how they are mediated, because this opens up aesthetic potential and of course frames the content. I still take my own photographs and enjoy the process of intervention and manipulation, but increasingly the use of found images and their context and potential became important. What was important for me specifically was the portrayal of conflict in the media, particularly that of the current conflict in Ukraine. This theme is important to me because it holds a such important currency, especially with the plethora of images and articles in newspapers, online and social media. The picture painted by the media covering the Ukraine conflict and images shown are somewhat different to what can be viewed online.

The images I’ve used in my works are taken from various online sources, which I appropriate and form my own work in relation to the subject. My aim with these images is to focus on the smaller mundane details as perhaps the ‘punctum’ of an image can distract our attention. This use of the pixel is to show the role of technology and the Internet with the media. Essentially in my work I’m trying to highlight the everyday aspect, as people’s lives still goes on in these war zones. I don’t think this is always portrayed in the media.

How did you develop the idea that produced your final exhibition work? 

I’ve had an interest in images and manipulation throughout most of the university course, however I only started concentrating on conflict images recently. I realised through both myself and feedback on my work, that I could further develop my practice by looking at more significant imagery, particularly containing, as Barthes would say a certain ‘punctum’. I realised working with such found imagery that it’s important to portray and work with them appropriately. I want the focus to be upon the everyday lives of the Ukraine people despite the on-going crisis.

Two books in particular were a significant influence on me; Towards a Philosophy of Photography by Vilém Flusser, and notably Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes. Barthes’s idea of the ‘punctum’ in an image was something I considered when developing my work.

What do you think is the most significant thing that has helped you during your time a UCA Farnham?

Having my own studio space has been a great benefit to me 

during my study, especially working next to my peers where there’s opportunity for feedback. I learnt how to arrange and select specific works out which would work together and as a result, create the narrative that I wanted to portray to the viewer.

What are you planning next?

Currently with my practice, my laptop is my studio space, so I plan to continue developing my practice and making art. My work is being exhibited in London soon and I also intend to submit my work for exhibitions and other opportunities. I’m currently looking into jobs that will help enable me to support my practice.

http://jasminerogers.co.uk