IB VISUAL ARTS 2022
Mia wilson
I originally wanted to create an exhibition exploring childhood but found as it grew and the artworks came together, I was more invested in creating art related to the struggles and state of limbo that is growing up, growing pains. The transition between childhood and adulthood is a pivotal experience, one that feels engulfing while you are in it, and can make the future unsure and scary. While growing up, I have changed so much that the prospect of change yet again, the responsibilities and independence of adulthood, is terrifying. Through this exhibition, I wanted to use key motifs of childhood, kids’ toys, playgrounds, and childish clothing, in combination with the idea of place and memories, particularly in bedrooms. I love the idea of taking concepts that are taken as childish and innocent at face value, and using them to convey darker themes, the idea of fear of change and adulthood. My interest in place allows me to convey the idea of passing time and transition through representations of rooms.
Connecting both space and transition in this way is largely explored through ideas of limbo or liminality, of being in a transitional stage or being in a boundary or threshold of 2 different sides, childhood, and adulthood. This is reflected in my visual style. I have used surrealist imagery to portray feelings of awkwardness, disjointedness and masking oneself to fit in or disappear.
My exhibition aims to explore multiple aspects of this fear, such as the naivety of childhood in the use of the horse head and young figures, and the construction of a child’s bedroom. Also, the struggle of adolescence, feeling in-between and isolated, unsure. I explored direct personal connection to growing up and childhood in my family, contrasting this with the rest of my artworks by specifically focussing on simplicity and grey-scale colours. Toward the end of creating the exhibition, I found myself as a woman, along with a lot of the world, disempowered and shocked by the decisions of the supreme court in America, and concerned for the safety and rights of women and people everywhere. I was taken aback by the collective uproar, and how many of those so outspoken were my age. I thought about how 10, even 5 years ago, this breach of basic rights would not have made any sense to me, I would have been oblivious to issues like these. This made me consider how part of growing up, is emerging from this oblivion, and needing to pause childhood, innocence, and naivety to fight for these issues and rights.
The connection to girlhood is expressed visually in my use of feminine symbolism, feminine colours, flowers, and women as the subject of many of my artworks. I have also embraced embroidery as an artform, with some irony. Known as a traditional pastime for women of the Victorian era, during the hours of stitching I have considered how these patriarchal expectations of women were so damaging, and how I am able to use such an artform in my exhibition as a challenge to the stereotypes embroidered art styles have with women.
When arranging my exhibition, I wanted to reflect and connect with the idea of family portraits and the concept of having to present as put together and whole to please others. Emphasising the pressures and standards of growing up in the organisation of the exhibition, I want it to appear as if everything was meticulously placed to present as a perfect whole. I decided to have the digital collage “Growing Pains” at the centre, as it feels like the culmination of my concepts. Surrounding this, a cluster of the rest of my artworks. The horse head or greyscale artworks will not be next to each other, as the ‘portrait’ must present a perfect balance. One of the artworks has a frame which captures this idea of portraits.
I would like my audience to see a personal journey. A journey of growing up, the struggles of insecurity and feelings of not fitting in.
Girlhood
embroidery and polymer clay on canvas
50cm x 40cm x 3cm
As I have been growing up and changing, even throughout creating this exhibition, I have seen the world change and shift also. At a protest for reproductive rights, I saw and photographed many protest placards, inspiring this work. This artwork references the challenges of growing up as a girl, specifically in a world against bodily autonomy. This work is about becoming a woman and fighting for your rights to challenge society. Not only do you have fear of responsibility and independence with growing up, but fear of the worlds expectations around you.
Redecorating
embroidery and fabric collage
24cm diameter
This embroidery features one bedroom at 3 stages in life to show the passage of time. A child’s room, carefree and expressive, into a teen’s room whose life is engulfed by concern about others’ opinions of themselves, expressed transparently in their room. The room of an early adult, someone who is feeling even more unsure of themselves without the routine they once had, but more subtly addressed in their room, as they have gotten better at hiding this anxiety. This work stems from a personal fear and worry about growing up, being 18 and the imminent changes that brings.
2008
oil painting on wood board
25cm x 25cm
As my exhibition examines the idea of childhood and memories, I wanted to explore memories of myself. This oil painting is a self-portrait as a child in 2008. The idea of my recapturing a moment in the distant past is interesting to me, as this wasn’t my perspective. This objective photo is not my memory of that moment, rather a reflection or a snapshot of someone else’s perspective of me. I was having a subjective experience, through my own eyes in that moment, as a child, quite a different person. The simplistic, black and white nature of the oil painting focuses on the reflective perspectives.
Awkward
series of 3 photographs in digital collage
40cm x 24cm
40cm x 26cm
40cm x 28cm
Inspired by artist Polixeni Papapetrou, this artwork explores the transition from childhood to adulthood. These formative years come with pressure to conform. The horse head shows the freedom of independence, but also the responsibility one has, as it is ‘stuck’ on a girl’s body. I depicted childhood in the use of a playground. The transition out is in the action of trying to hitchhike, to grow up, but not being on the actual road, showing a reservation and fear of adulthood. Finally, a field, representing independence, the horse is in its natural habitat, but still isolated.
Growing Pains
digital collage
76cm x 1000cm
“Don’t try and make me grow up before my time.” – Louisa May Alcott, Little Women.
There is a discomfort and trapped feeling to being a teenager, not a child but not yet an adult. This state of limbo can be difficult to navigate, feeling pressure to conform to both stages of life. The teen girl in the photo, in front of a pink, feminine background, is in a suit too big for her, in the same way adulthood does not yet fit her. The toys are abnormally large, out of place, also not fitting. The expectation to grow up or fit a certain mould can be harmful, and the ‘it’s a girl’ balloon signifies these standards.
Liminal Spaces
oil painting on board
40cm x 51cm
Part of growing up is growing out of key fragments of childhood. This painting is the bedroom I slept in when I stayed at my grandparents, showing how youth and change can manifest in place. A simple as a bedroom can mean so much because of the memories attached to it. There is an emptiness and unoccupied nature to the room, time has passed, and I no longer sleep there. The mirror is empty, contributing to the feeling of distant memory and reflection. The window is a form of contrast, as bright and colourful, referencing the past and childish energy that once inhabited the room.
Play Pretend
embroidery on calico and found/sourced frame
20cm x 20cm
This embroidery explores expectations of childhood and one’s behaviour. There are themes of innocence, purity and fragility in the flowers and youth depicted in the embroidery. The motif of the horse in my work is significant in the contrast between the ‘freedom’ horses symbolise with the adolescent struggle and confines of being stuck on a girl’s head and the physical borders of the artwork. The awkward rigidity in the portrait style reflects the limitations expectations and the extravagance of the frame and ‘performance’ of the family portrait emphasises this.
Generations
film photography collage
30.5cm x 45.5cm
This film photograph is a personal connection to the idea of growing up. By having the youngest and oldest women in my family, with me out of place and imposed in the middle, I want to show the transition and passing of time. Through layering the negatives of the photograph, I am connecting the generations of women, like a thread. Another portrait style artwork, in black and white contrasts the surrealist chaos of the rest of my exhibition, emphasising simplicity and beauty. The overlapping of all of us shows this connection and transition.
Imminent Doom
digital collage
40cm x 30cm
This digital photo uses the images of oversized childhood toys to represent the impending doom of adulthood. Over a background nostalgic of my childhood experience of travel and exploration, a young girl is on a swing. Over the mountains, reminiscent of an old monster movie, gigantic toys loom over the girl, coming over the horizon toward her. There is an ominous nature to change and growing up, going into the unknown, bringing overwhelming independence and responsibility. It can feel impending, charging toward you, just over the horizon.
