Jennifer Mosley
Jennifer Mosley graduated from Dartington College of Arts with a BA (Hons) degree in Visual Performance Art, installation and time based media: excitingly crossing boundaries of existing disciplines. This background afforded her the opportunity to develop her skills with performance art,
Jennifer’s story ……
“When looking back at my childhood I can’t avoid recalling, the fairy tale connections.
Throughout my childhood my Dad would spend most of his time in his workshop, which was full of incredible objects. He had been an eclectic collector over the years! Our dining room was a miniature museum of automata, which dad had created: Witches riding in carriages; a magician doing card tricks; Bubbles, blowing bubbles; A young girl holding a bird and moving as if singing. My Mum would read fairy tales to me creating the voices of the characters and tell me of the fairy clock (Dandelions) and fairy shoes (white dead nettles). On my eighth Christmas I received a beautifully illustrated Grimm’s fairy tale book, which I still treasure today.”
In fairy tales the world of reality is left behind, from the very start. Wish fulfilment’s, secret powers, omnipotence of thoughts, animation of inanimate objects, all the elements to be expected to be discovered within, fairy stories.
Jennifer’s interest in fairy tales returned to her as an adult. They are a link with her childhood, when everything was a learning experience and she was blessed with a remarkable level of imagination, clearly passed on to her, from her father. She discovered that most fairy tales are quite horrific; this juxtaposed with their childlike innocence and is what drew her to them, once again.
“Fairy tales contain both childhood innocence, with the sometimes terrifying and macabre, which I would like to create in my sculptures. I hope to provoke a feeling of unease and the uncanny.”
The Process:
“I begin with a wire- frame, then use paper and a plaster mix, followed by a rust oxidisation paint finish. I chose to work with these materials due to their delicate and fragile appearance. The rust represents deterioration, accentuating the fragility of childhood memories and how they fade with time.
I finish by encasing them in a dome, archiving them; as a museum would do with a fragile object, that would, overtime deteriorate.” – J Mosley