RESEARCH
ANGELA COCKAYNE
In my new collection of works entitled Chimera, I combine found natural materials with playful wit and irony, to present a curious mix of ironic humor, absurdity and spectacle.
In ‘Gnawpecker’, green woodpecker wings are attached to a log gnawed and shaped by a beaver. ‘Surf and Turf’ is a work, which combines elements from the land and sea, washed in on the tide and found by beach combing.
Coral, animal bone, and cornhusks are attached to squid bodies cast in wax, with legs fashioned from hairgrips and champagne wire.
These hand crafted provocative works, simultaneously raise the contentious issues of the biomedical debate of genetic engineering; they also raise a more profound dialogue about cultural identity and ideology.
Gnawpecker
It appears anything could happen; maps of England cast in bronze are transformed using anatomical systems, and painted with nail varnish. A wax cast shark becomes a passenger jet.
A work called 'Skitterings' presents a group of birds with heads and beaks made from a range of crustacean claws.
A huddle of lobster hybrids, normally cannibalistic, congregates in an unspoken dialogue. Subliminally, they go beyond any natural pecking order, to adopt a position on authority and very primal human needs of intimacy and respect.
Crab Heads
Like Darwinian adaptations presented in breeding pairs, no two species are the same. Gathered together they suggest a stimulating narrative that raises questions about plural societies and our own ecological literacy.
Crab Crew