Tabitha Kyoko Moses

I was told to look at the artist Tabitha Kyoko Moses due to the use of dolls in her work. I think she refers to when the dolls are fogotton. They look like they are wrapped 'mumified' in fact. Part of history, gathering dust and collecting dirt. But then the artists finds them. Looking at the history of the doll, dolls were often used in burials to send of with the child. The doll is rather corpse like, all dead limbed. and they do represent the human. It seems oerhaps this is what Tabatha is playing with - the deathliness of the doll. Its like she is making these dolls for a child that is already dead, following the mumified beliefs for the afterlife.

The way she places the objects in museum is also interesting as here is a place where we collect parts of history. The work fits well with the other artefacts around it but also has a contemporary feel to it. There always seems like a hint of darkness, perhaps saying in life, there is always death.

I find the x-rays quite interesting. The dolls have an inside- this never normally comes to value when looking at a doll. It is normally about the outside - the facing of the doll. People may forget it has an inside at all. in a way, it gives them more of a human quality. These images seem quite exciting indeed.

Ron Mueck

He uses larger than life hyper-realism in his work. Such an amazing thing i think. You are faced with this new born baby. It is this wonderful creation but seems quite grotesque. You can see all the details like skin pores. etc. Seems very freaky. He works from birth all the way to death. This to me is extroadinary. Out of this world in a way. Something as small as a baby to be larger than a car. This is what i want to play with - the scale. I think the scale will be very important!

Hans Bellmer

Bellmer created several dolls with fragmented bodies that could be dismantled and arranged in various configurations. Then using the form of photography, he captured the image of the dolls in certain positions, often grotesque and in sexual positions. I think this is about death in a way as well as neglect, perhaps abuse. They are left there in these sexual positions, used for this reason. but they lie there empty, destroyed, abandoned, used. Even though they are dolls, the doll is a representation of the human and so you can feel this human conditions when you look at this work. I looks at fragments of the body, ie. 2 bums in the image above looking at certain parts of the body as fetishising.

Annette Messenger

Im looking at Annette Messenger due to the way sheuses doll figures. Below on the right is interesting as this is how i displayed some of my work. A lot of her work has the subjects of sexual and physical abuse,fragmentation of the body, sin, obsession with appearances, fairy tales, children, symbols, effigies, disguise, distortion, repetition. All these issues are surrounding women. Often using women's material and techniques.

Laura Ford

The scale to these pieces of our quite important to the pieces. They have to be life-size i guess for the more impact. it looks more certain. With the above work, im not sure if it is a real person or a doll/mannequin underneath the mask. This asks you whether it is going to move or not, gives me a slight panic if it will. Puts me on edge.

Again, below, is the same. I am on edge. If it moves i may be in trouble with those huge antlers. but, with the one below, i know it is not alive. It wouldn't be stood that still and it would be against animal rights. She normally has two types of characters, human and animals, dressing them up in fabrics, sometimes costumes.

Susan Hiller

4 synchronised video projections, quadrophonic sound.

"Susan Hiller's An Entertainment, 1990 - four video projectors and sound in a square room - is 26 minutes long, during which huge coloured images... are thrown against the wall; the soundtrack evokes a seaside audience as well as the murderous doings of Mr. Punch with his thrusting nose; entertainment clichés ("Oh yes he is! Oh no he isn't!") are menacingly intoned. Memories of Edward Munch and James Ensor... and the cruel caricatures of Regency London all spring to mind in Hiller's absorbing disquition on ritual and myth, vicious comedy, violence and death. The brutality of what passes for entertainment still erupts in London life, and Hiller has unnervingly traced one of its histories."

Richard Shone, Artforum, 1995

I was told to look at this due to the use ideas towards Punch and Judy. Punch and Judy is funny when your younger. But it is about beating up your wife, becoming the devil, intended to provoke shocked laughter.

susan Hiller uses this in her work ' An entertainment'. Looking at themes such as myth, ritual, death. Again, sadly i wasnt able to go to this installation and i think this is a huge part of the work, just like all art i guess. From her work, i also looked at some work by James Ensor.

His faces depict those in the Italian themes puppetry street performances, The Pupi-Sicilliani, Fratelli Pasqualino. His characters seem very surreal wearing masks that actually look like it is their faces. The colours suit the theme, quite sickly but fun. Humorous but terrifying. they all look at you and the style of painting feels dream-lie, not real. It is like they are laughing at you.

Grayson Perry and Mary Reid Kelly - You make me Iliad

This is Claire. She is the female alter-ego of Grayson Perry. To me, it is very doll - like. It has a great performance to his work as well as his ceramic vases he creates.

I think in my work I will add a performance element to my work. I do like the idea of dressing as dolls and so may take this further. Instead of being a 'Claire' for my alter-ego, I am much more interested in the aspect of play. Play is the main idea for my work and i want the dolls to play with the audience.

I have recently been to an exhibit by Mary Reid Kelley named ' You Make me Iliad' (image above). She created a film with three main characters, but the film looks like an animation. I love the idea of creating this animation lookalike. Is it real? fantasy? Who is it? How is it made? After you watch the film you do realise that it isn't an animation. You notice the face paint. This plays with the audience.

Charles Ray

Above: 'Family romance' 1993

Charles Ray plays with scale and proportions. In Family Romance, he has the whole family of the same heights but due to this, has to change the proportions of the younger children. It has a slight humour to it. I think having a baby a lot taller than you will seem very strange indeed. I don't think that photographs or images of his work really justifies it. I think you need to be there, stood with the family to actually feel the full feeling as these are your height, or in my case taller than me.

Above: Plank piece I-II, 1973

I really like how the artist uses his body in the work, how he uses it as a sculptural element. He doesn't look real. He looks like a doll and it could be as he used so many doll - like objects ( ie like 'Family Romance'. I wonder how long he stays here and where. It looks like it is just in the studio. Is t a performance? and in other works, he has been tied to a tree for an afternoon and viewed by passers by only. Or is this made to be a photo. in that case, his body isn't a sculptural form, he is just being a model.

There are a few other pieces I like of his for example ' In Memory of Sadat, 1981 where there is a long rectangular box, in two sections. In each section there is a hole. One hole, a leg ascends and in the other an arm ascends. It is the artist's body directly incorporated into a steel sculpture. He see's the body as sculpture and this is what i think i like this. The performance aspect of the work. But it is not really used as performance. He makes his body an object.

Natalie Djurberg

Natalie Djurberg. Above ' It's the Mother' 2008

Watching 'The Prostitute' animation, i have a feeling of me being there, watching her. It is quite a beautiful piece even though it is about a prostitute. The music goes wells with you peering through the holes and gaps in the curtains. You enter into this world but never go too far. All the way through the animation I am quite tense. It feels wrong to watch a toy/doll/ children's medium / animation with the context of the prostitute. So i feel tense watching, like something really bad and sexual is going to happen even though it is just really at the end of the day a doll. there maybe something about dolls having sex. There is someone behind the doll making them have sex. They are in control and the dolls are objects. This is what she explores mainly in her animation. She explores themes of women/female as a sex object. She is a toy being played with. but she teases you in. \the body is someones tool.

The Power of Myth - Joseph Campbell

Abreif reflection:

I have recently read this book, suggested to me in my tutorial. It talks about how all the myths are all really quite similar, even though they were created in such different places. It not only talks about Greek Myths (what i thought myths were) but it tooks about religions being myths, which i guess they are as i hadn't really thought about this before.

So, here are a few notes i kept:

culture humanised for sometime
ethos
Today we have a demythologized world.
As a result, studens Campbell meets are interested in mythology as the myths bring them messages. We are not learning wisdom in life in schools. We are not taught this. This is what myths teach. We are learning technologies to get information.
Specialist and generalist. He says if your not a specialist, you are a generalist.
Taught things in myth :- creation, death, resurrection, ascention to heaven. Myths from every culture are similar. Are timeless themes.
Teaches what is behing litrature and art, own life, stages of life. Rituals like marriage are myths.
Judges, Kings, queens stand into mythological roles. They become a symbol. like when you join the army, you are putting on a uniform.

Cant go back into religion? throw self out of sync with history. People loose faith in religions as time moves on. Not individual people but the era of people. thats why people may take drugs, for that mystical experience, mechanically induced.

Consiousness - life energy. How do we transform it? What are you disposed to think about? Mediatation? bring us to a level of consiousness ( the myth does). Myths are worlds dreams. Legends such as John Wayne become a myth. Model in people's lives.
Magical about films - person you are looking at is somewhere else at same time. condition of God. Multiple presesnce.Actor not the real person.

new myths - planes like birds, weapons like Lord Death. They serve old stories.
Machines help us to fulfill idea that we want the world to be made on our own image and we want it to be how we think it ought to be. Campbell believes that computers are miracles.Is it possible to adapt the same feeling towards your computer as it is to God? The same way the christian said that God lives in all things? God is everywhere, including the computer. Religion has its own software for it to work.

When world changes, religion has to be transformed. Religions stuck in time, need to be opened up. ie. Catholic and protistants.

Myths we create today have relivance to past myths.
Mytholgy is in socities.
Definition: Myth: storys abouyt Gods. What is a God?
2 orders of myth:1. nature and matural world of which your part of.
2.strictly socialogical to link to particular society.
through mythology and ritual, it is an attempt to control nature.

myths serve 4 functions.
1. mystical realizing what a wonderful universe is and what a wonder in experiencing awe before this mystery. myth opens world to mystery.
2. Cosmological dimensions, science in concerned, showing shape of universe but in a way creates mystery. Tells you how it works but not what it is.
3. cocialogical one - supporting and validating a certain order. out of date.
4. Pedagogical finction - how to live a human lifetime under any circumstances. Myth teaches you this.

Myths/dreams comes from some sort of realization. Dream is personal, myth is society's dream.
Architypal - perfect speciman.
Talks about snakes shredding skins. Life sheds generation after generation.

Gerden of Eden - metaphor for innocence.
In a lot of myths, man were 1, and became 2 so we strive to be 1 again with another.
dualality - harmonizing (right/wrong, sin/atonement)

*The First Storytellers
Times have changed- animals once taught us, now we cage them.
primevil instinct. We are not animals but our animal instict comes out in certain situations. Part of life that we pick up on in wilderness. Sense of adventure.
'Man lives by killing' - caveman with guilt. Trying to eradicate the guilt. They live so they have to kill. Its not as simple as going out and eating. they have to do a ritual. Superstition? Belief?

Artists are the mythmakers of our day.

*Sacrifice and Bliss
Sanctification of lcal landscape - fundamental function of mythology.
The role of myth with the artist - communicates the myth.
Plant - sense of death but death is required for new life (new growths).

need to look at Schopenhauer essay

*The Hero's Adventure

writes about how mothers are heros giving birth.
A hero puts his own life out to save another without thinking about it.
mechanical world.
Easy to watch heroes on Tv and not take part in the changing world. Life changing too quickly, too fast at the moment to even think of something before something else comes along.
Celebrities are what we worshop now. 'i want to be a celebrity' - to be known. public hero is sensitive to needs at time. eg. John Lennon.
You die to bring life.

Departure, fullfillment, return.
architypal mythnic hero. life replicated in many lands. Hero of many faces. Living our own life not imitating. We are on a quest too.
Fairytale - child's myth. as you get older , you need a sturdyer myth.
Story - is it all a story? Basic assumptions and fundamental beliefs about how things worek. We are inbetween stories. old story not functioning and not learnt a new one. some old stories still work - spiritual quest. messages from teachers, moses, christ, buddha, Mohammed differ but visionary jounreys are the same -ish.Teachers may not teach as society will do things. infant an inpulse of life then the mind comes along to figure it all out.

Joyce and Mann - need to look at

system today - we are living in a system. is it going to deny you humanity? or is it good to human purpose? Relate to system without serving it.

*Gift of the Goddess
at-one-ment
Your mother is who your born with so you have mother figures in myth. This questions who your father is? You go on this quest to find your father. This quest to find your father you are also finding youself. We and the earth are the same. Body has a forse and energy.

Male myth dominate the female myth. and then the 2 combine. Symbols in mytholgy refer to you. you are a god and god is you. through life male and female supress and honour each other.
mother - inclusive love for pogeny
father - more disciplned social order and character. how to work in society.
save the earth - save ourselves.

*Tales of Love and Marriage

Eros - God who excites you to sexual desire, bilogical urge.

Suffer with love
compasstion - con - with, passion - suffering.

t s lewis the wasteland

when married you become one - you share male and female. ie, if your male you start to have a fminime side and vice versa.

Photographs - dead/sleeping children. Post-mortem

Article from the website:

http://thereifixedit.failblog.org/2010/07/29/historical-thursday-memento-mori/

Historical Thursday: Memento Mori

This week we will be delving into a topic that may seem morbid, but has had a significant role and effect in our perception of death in modern life. Post-mortem photography was popularized in the mid to late 19th century as a continuation of the ancient art of remembrance of the dead. While one could see these photos as macabre, they certainly have a role as mementos of the past, and a way of preserving the image of the deceased in way that their loved-ones choose. Although understandably tragic, the photographs’ role allows families a beautiful memory of their deceased loved ones.

Many of the subjects of the photos were young children, which reflects a definite change in regards to the decrease in the infant mortality rate in developed nations. Being the great equalizer that death is, people of all ages were memorialized this way. The bodies were preserved following certain procedures that are still practiced today with regards towards physical preservation (embalming with arsenic salts, alcohol, and formaldehyde) and dressed in their finest clothes.

Keep in mind that photography in the 19th century was an elaborate process; both time consuming and certainly expensive. For many people this was the only photo that would be taken of them. Typically the deceased are depicted as sleeping following through on the notion of death as permanent state of sleep, but also because generally people died asleep in their beds

With the increasing ubiquity of camera technology this practice has fallen wayside, but there are still concepts and ideas which arose from these rituals such as the (now defunct) website Deathspace which in a certain way acts as a way of using technology to remembering the deceased.

Information courtesy of: Dan Meinwald, Art Of Mourning

Images courtesy of: Mr.Fox: Post Mortem and Wikipedia

Installation I saw earlier this year: Janet Cardiff

Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller: Ship O’ Fools

Trinity Bellwoods Park, Toronto Jun 11 to 28 2010

by David Balzer

Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller’s work is confounding and entertaining, fragmentary and wholly satisfying in equal measure. And it is designed this way. The duo’s intention lies almost exclusively in effect, with collaborative pieces like The Murder of Crows (2008), The Paradise Institute (2001) and all of Cardiff's audio walking tours providing mere cues to narratives—narratives housed in culture, especially genre (such as the gothic)—which can only be finished subliminally, in viewers’ psyches. No successful Cardiff and Miller creation seems incomplete, however; instead it is a vortex, pulling the tangible world into a wild, seemingly endless rotation around powerful concepts and fantasies.

There is an actual vortex, a water funnel in a bottle, amid the many objects in Cardiff and Miller’s latest work, Ship O’ Fools, commissioned especially for Toronto’s Luminato festival. A 30-foot Chinese junk boat placed in Trinity Bellwoods Park near Queen Street West, the piece is, in the Cardiff and Miller tradition, a sculpture viewers are invited to enter and explore. In it, one finds, among other things, root-and-dirt-filled vitrines, dioramas of small, solitary men and women in spare rooms, vintage radios that coo and wail, and makeshift, automated percussive instruments, the sounds of which, for approximately five minutes, rise to a clattering crescendo. There is no missing the titular allegory, one recurrent throughout art history with perhaps its most famous depiction by Hieronymus Bosch. Indeed, Bosch’s painting, itself a fragment of a larger panel exploring (what else?) waste and truculence, provides the best exposition: immersed in a carnivalesque frenzy, the denizens of the boat do everything normal shipmates, with their chains-of-command and strict commercial and colonial courses, do not. They play music, eat cherries, tie a turkey to the mast and drink until they puke.




The difference, of course, is that Ship O’ Fools aims to enchant that which Bosch, despite his aesthetic fascination, condemns. The theme of waywardness is prolific: an upside-down can of chowder spins like a top on a rod linked to whirling gears; a robotic bow spasmodically crosses violin strings. Rube Goldberg, the American cartoonist and inventor known for his convoluted contraptions that perform simple tasks, must have been an influence, except the objects in Ship O’ Fools do nothing. (This is what distinguishes them from those in the artists’ very similar Dark Pool from 1995, a room that reacts to the presence of viewers.) Here, Cardiff and Miller have, as in the audio walks–where, like a confounding film noir, the end comes only to satisfy, not to elucidate–fetishized process. Now, if only they could build a perpetual-motion machine.

Some work so far

I got this doll from a charity shop: I wanted to play with her and buy several and change their body parts etc. I feel I cant hurt her. She seems to precious and dainty. Perhaps though - I need to make that leap. Go for it. Not be afraid to destroy something to make in newer. After all i did destroy the bible.But then again - that came back to haunt me with the leak. Is it fear the reason why i dont want to destroy the doll? But im not destroyinh it, i will be taking it apart and putting it together again. I think it is more to do with me being older and having more values for this doll. Or again is it that fear that the doll is alive and will come get my as i ruined its appearance? I felt bad just undressing it. But once i did that, it felt less prestine. I felt like i could play with it. It is afterall an object. But now can be collectible. Can have values to it.

For the time being, I decided to create this 'doll' if you like out of sticks. It does look rather spooky and fragile. How did i get to doing this? Well, i was a little stuck and decided to take a walk down the river. I had this idea of dolls being not made of soft materials, and child-friendly as i was looking at the materials dolls were made of, anad some were flammable. So what if they were made of knives? or scissors? Things that are not flame proof? Poison? So i think i will look more in depth of the materials used to create dolls and perhaps make a few of my own. Then, i thought about how can i try and focus somewhere other than the figure? I dont want to focus too much on the figure. Then I thought about the inside of the figure. If i used a burning material, I got cover it in clay and then fire it. This would leave the shape of the materials but the materials will burn away. This leaves the trace of what was there. So using twigs to create the body, they were once the body, then when in clay, they are the skeleton - the support, and then they are burnt, and the wall of clay stands around it., with the trace of the skeleton still there. I want to leave the ash in the structure, leave some trace.I decided to put the new doll in the old doll's clothes. Just to see what it was like. It reminds me of little Ottik (on blog before).It seems very eerie, especially as the head isnt on properly and keeps rolling of. I guess the next step is to cover it in clay?
Trace - i like this idea, Leaving my own trace. Leaving a trace of me so that they have to find me? That i have been somewhere. How objects leave traces on other objects. Questions. I may play with tracing paper. Or looking over on previous refelctions - traces of destroyed things. Traces of murder mysteries that wernt solved, like Jack the Ripper.

Also, the distortion of my own childhood. How i get older and my childhood is getting lost, the trace becomes thinner and thinner. Childhood destroyed. Getting lost. I have been looking in the loft for old letters i have recieved from friends. These are a trace from my letters i had sent as they are the reply to those letters. I only know half of what i say on those letters. I think i may also look at this.

Article - baby deaths in France

An Article from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10799539is

29 July 2010 Last updated at 19:32

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Frenchwoman 'admits smothering eight newborn babies'

Dominique Cottrez is being detained while the investigation continues

A woman in northern France has admitted killing her eight newborn babies but said her husband knew nothing about it, the prosecutor in the case has said.

Dominique Cottrez has been placed under investigation over the deaths, which happened between 1989 and 2006. Her husband has been freed without charge.

Mr Cottrez had initially faced investigation for allegedly concealing the bodies and not reporting crimes.

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• What is known about the case

Mrs Cottrez, 47, faces charges of the voluntary homicide of the babies.

Being placed under investigation is the first stage of criminal proceedings that can lead to charges.

The prosecutor had requested the charges of failing to report the killings and hiding the bodies against Mr Cottrez, but the prosecutor said the investigating magistrate in the case had ruled against this.

Wrapped in plastic

The remains were found in the village of Villers-au-Tertre, near the northern city of Lille, on Wednesday.

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At the scene

Christian Fraser BBC News, Villers-au-Tertre

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Dominique Cottrez was house proud. Her garden is a picture: there are no clues here - save for the police tape on the windows - to the macabre secret she was hiding in the garage of her tiny cottage.

The prosecutor says she is now facing eight counts of murder and a possible life sentence.

Mrs Cottrez was an active member of the community, a familiar figure known to all as the doting grandmother.

But she had smothered the first of these eight children in 1989, the last in 2006.

She never wanted any more children, she told police and, even though she is a care assistant, she claims she was too fearful of doctors to ever request contraception.

Police with sniffer dogs searched two houses in the quiet commuter village after the new owners of a house called them following the discovery of remains in the garden.

The house belonged to the parents of the arrested woman.

Police then conducted searches in another house in the village - that of the arrested couple - where the bodies of more babies were found.

Mrs Cottrez said she was fully aware of her pregnancies, but that she did not want any more children and did not want to see a doctor for contraception, the prosecutor in the case said at a news conference.

"This is a case outside of the norms given the number of newborns," he added.

Mrs Cottrez said that after a first difficult birth because of her heavy weight, she did not want to see any more doctors. She was alone in her pregnancies and while giving birth, the prosecutor said.

The remains found in the first house were wrapped in plastic bags, while the other six bodies were found in the garage of the second house wrapped in hermetically sealed plastic bags, hidden under a variety of objects.

The births of the eight babies were said to have taken place between 1989 and 2006-07, the prosecutor said, although further tests will be able to determine the exact dates.

Mr Cottrez said he had never noticed his wife's pregnancies because of her heavy weight, and had no idea she had been getting rid of the babies at birth, the prosecutor said.

Daughters speak

The couple have two grown-up daughters and grandchildren.

The two unnamed daughters, aged 21 and 22, told regional newspaper La Voix du Nord that they could not understand what had happened.

The younger of the two said: "We never noticed anything. She had her moments of weariness, it's true, but she worked nearly 24 hours a day between her job as a home help and her housework."

The eldest recalled how her mother had helped at the birth of her son: "She was there at the delivery with me, she was the one who carried him and wrapped him... We both had tears in our eyes."

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Multiple infanticides in France

• 2010, Nord region: Dominique Cottrez confesses to killing eight of her babies
• 2010, Lower Normandy: Celine Lesage jailed for killing six of her babies
• 2003, Alsace: Remains of four babies found in bags in forest - at least three had same parentage; parents not found
• 1984, Limousin: Jean-Pierre Leymarie and his wife Rolande jailed for killing seven of their babies

Both daughters added that they hoped their mother would get psychological help. "She must feel relieved now that she has nothing left to hide," said one.

Mrs Cottrez is a care worker while Mr Cottrez works for a construction company and is a member of the local council.

"He's on his third term in office. He used to volunteer in the community. He's a respectable man," local mayor Patrick Mercier told reporters earlier on Thursday.

The BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris says France has had a string of cases in recent years involving the deaths of newborn babies.

In March, a mother confessed to killing six of her newborn children and hiding them in the cellar of her house in north-west France.

In 1984 a couple in Correze, central France, were jailed for killing seven of their newborn infants over a period of seven years.

In Germany in 2006, Sabine Hilschenz was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the manslaughter of eight of her newborn babies. A ninth baby also died, but too long ago to allow a prosecution

Article of baby deaths

An article from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1277678/Child-mortality-total-Britain-worst-Western-Europe.html

The shame of baby deaths in Britain: Child mortality total is the worst in Western Europe

By Jenny Hope
Last updated at 8:03 AM on 12th May 2010

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The number of deaths among children under five is worse in Britain than anywhere else in Western Europe as women delay motherhood and lead unhealthy lives.

Researchers say 4,324 under fives died in the UK in 2008, which was 'way ahead' of the number in France, Germany and Italy.

More than half of the children died within the first four weeks of life and many of the deaths were preventable, according to their report.

More than half of the children died within the first four weeks of life and many of the deaths were preventable, according a report. (Posed by model)

Experts say poor antenatal care and a rapid rise in premature births was largely to blame.

Delayed motherhood and soaring rates of obesity among pregnant women are linked to premature births, according to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

The report, published today in The Lancet medical journal, looks at global death rates in children under five.

Two-thirds of the 8.8million deaths were caused by infectious diseases.

But the UK had the highest number of deaths in this age group in Western Europe - a 'difference that cannot be solely accounted for by population size', says The Lancet.

The UK, with a population of around 61million, had 4,324 deaths in children under five in 2008, while France had 3,090 deaths in a population of 64million.

In Germany, with a population of 82million, there were 2,943 deaths, while Italy recorded 2,350 deaths in a population of 60million.

But Turkey, with a population of 73million, had almost 30,000 deaths of under-fives.

The total death rate in the UK was 'very small' in the global context, says the study by scientists at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in Baltimore, Maryland, and the World Health Organisation.

Fifty-five per cent of deaths in under-fives in the UK were in babies during the neonatal period - the first four weeks of life.

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The report shows pre-term birth complications were the largest cause of death (36 per cent) followed by congenital abnormalities (26 per cent) and birth asphyxia (7 per cent).

There has been a surge in pregnancy among women in their 30s, while almost one in four women in the UK is obese and a further third are overweight.

Professor Siobhan Quenby, of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said: 'There are many reasons why the neonatal death rate in the UK is higher than in other countries in Western Europe. It is related to an increased rate of pre-term birth.

'Over the last few years, we have seen an increase in the numbers of pregnant women with risk factors such as older mothers, maternal obesity and multiple pregnancies through fertility treatment; all of which are associated with pre-term labour.'

Antenatal tests to check the health of the unborn baby are usually carried out at clinics in GP surgeries or hospital, although some offer a midwife home-visiting service.

But women living in poorer areas or who are at high risk often do not attend appointments regularly, which can lead to problems going unnoticed.

Tim Burton

I really enjoy the work of Tim burton. He creates these freaky characters but lovable all the same. I mainly like how the use of the sewing theme is used. How they look like they have been sewn up. How they are like dolls performing.

The credits on Caroline are really quite amazing. Draws you in straight away. Throughout most of the film, you dont know what is going.It is about this paralel universe where everybody has clones. ?The opening credits are really interesting. It shows a doll being undone, unravelled and unstuffed and then reassembled. The doll maker is seen using needles for fingers.

I do like the idea of making a doll out of sharp objects. Sharp objects are usually what makes the doll. It swaps the whole material process around.

Just a few finished pieces from my first year at Uni

Below, I created this character using oil paints. Im looking at the fantasy world. Good and bad. It has religious conotations in. It uses symbology and refereces to the Religious stories. For example and snake being eaten by the peacock. The tree in the background, the fruit on the table. The winged creature. The peacock head sybolising many things also but represent luck in many cultures, grace etc. so it is a miz between belief, good, evil, religion etc.

Below are characters i also created for the narrative. I followed on from my sculpture rotation of the chair legs falling, bundled together. Ripped away from the chairs.

Below, is another wounded chair leg. Quite figurative!

This is where my inspiration came from for the paintings. These are chaor legs and copies of chair legs with wax and a rubber moulding material. I was experimenting with materials and looked at making lace as a starter idea. I did it on a grander scale and wanted the piece to travel by knotting all the strings together.

Below is an installation from an encounter ( can see on previous blog). It was holes in a dark hideout - that you could look through, if you wanted to. The holes didnt look like it was part of the work even though it was. So some people may not have found out about the holes. Some people may have discovered them. I like this idea of discovery. Finding something out. The hole acts as a trace, behind the hole is the work. But the hole is also the work.

Below is another installation i had done about 'escaping'. We went camping away from any social commitment, away from society. When we came back, we wanted to create this space so we can escape to it when we wanted to and allow others to discover it. This also comes under our 'encounterism' manifesto. It was in a cuboard so was hard to find. We left envelopes around with directions to get there and that i guess was the trace for it. It had sound, smell, a very small torch ligh, dark, confined space. We wanted it dark to allow the viewer to use their imaginations. We also left our diaries in the space and what we drank and ate.

Below are the dolls I made and left them around for people to find. There were 10 of each. A little me and a little friend for me.I wanted people to discover them.

Below, is the work all together for assessment. I have written about this on a previous blog named 'Reflecting back on the lost works'. It is displaying all the encounterisms we had done in that term.