Today we visited Plymouth College of Art at Tavistock Place to view an exhibition created by Eleanor Duffin called ‘A Phantom Limb.’ This exhibition featured sculptural objects and sound-based work by the Bristol-based contemporary visual artist as part of her ongoing project ‘Phantoms of Form’. Eleanor Duffin is a visual artist whose works are predominantly sculptural in nature and are characterised by the tension between materiality and form.
I found that whilst viewing the exhibition, it was unclear as to what this project was about, but that is what I liked about it. It left me curious and asking questions. This resulted in me visiting the Plymouth College of art website to find out more.
The overall ‘Phantoms of Form’ project is based on a female protagonist who is occupied with material investigation and acts as a composite of a number of historical female artists and designers. Combining the lives and designs of these women from history with the artist’s own original work, the exhibition varies between autobiographical and fan fiction.
This chapter of the project, A Phantom Limb, focuses on a series of letters written by Eleanor to the artist Barbara Hepworth, following a visit to Hepworth’s studio in October 2018. Preoccupied with the garden planted by Hepworth at the studio, the research for this show began by focusing on Hepworth’s use of the garden as an exterior workspace. This is evident in Duffin’s exhibition, with various house plants around the show, Eleanor documents the demise of her own house plants slowly beginning to die.
“Phantoms of Form’ initially developed from my search for other female artists that I could identify with, thinking particularly about lineage and what it means to be a woman whose artistic practice is materially driven and whose concerns might contrast with those pursued by male sculptors, for example.”
What I liked about this exhibition was that it was full of various art concepts, including sculptures, paintings, and a projection, it wasn’t only focused on one thing.
Visiting exhibitions is inspiring. Even if the exhibition does not relate to any aspect of our projects, it is still interesting to see how artist display their work, as we will be doing this for the summer show in June. Duffin used a whole range of ways to present her work, including tables, shelves, frames, chairs, and even the floor. This was not a photography exhibition, but, I found it interesting to see how this artist framed her work and have taken inspiration and ideas from this. For her paintings, she simply hung them up inside a frame. This exhibition has also given me the idea to make use of the space when presenting my work.
Final Major Project 