Artist Statement

“I used to think that everything was being funny but now I don’t know. I mean, how can you tell?”
-Andy Warhol.

My Gold and Silversmithing practice is focused on the connection between the object and the viewer and the creation of a time and space that this connection occurs within. I am interested in establishing a direct link between the object and viewer through engagement. I find it possible to engage with the viewer through previously known iconography and ideas, such as pop culture, kitsch and humour.

I employ the traditional goldsmithing technique of filigree. Instead of decorative embellishments I prefer a more contemporary approach – generating words, symbols and three-dimensional objects that are then contained and entrapped into spaces between pop culture and kitsch iconography. The references in the work include such things as the tourist monument, the ironic sentimentality of a dated decorative object and humorous novelties. I am also interested in collage – a bringing together of multiple ideas and imagery that produces a fresh narrative and a new meaning to previously established ideas. The result is intentionally playful and humorous. It is inviting engagement, and yet avoids the danger of alienation. It is thoughtful, but not demanding; unless the viewer chooses to look a little deeper.

Tara Wimhurst
tazelovski@hotmail.com
www.myspace.com/tarawimhurst

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