Emily Tilbrook
Balance
Sustainability could be considered as the balance between the natural world and the man made one. This project has explored natural found materials and recycled man made mediums, to realise two full body costumes in relation to these two worlds.
Engaging with traditional forms of craft such as weaving and latch hook, juxtaposed against unorthodox forms of material manipulation techniques, it attempts to provoke thoughts about how materials affect the world we live in. It also raises questions about art as activism through performance and costume.
The research from this project stemmed from investigating mythical creatures and folk tales of human yet unhuman beings. Bigfoot is just one of the urban legends that came to light, it was interesting to see how preoccupied people became with this evasive creature that wondered between the boundaries of fact and fiction.
The costumed beings seem to position themselves between reality and fantasy and have become creatures in themselves through material creations. Initially these creatures were to be roaming the countryside or cityscape. However, in current times having these beasts cooped up at home performing the mundane and domestic tasks, we have all become all too accustomed to in the past few weeks, allows the audience to relate to them.
These mythical creatures becoming something of our contemporary day folk stories. Warding off evil through traditional dress in Europe has been a big influence for this project, and to ask questions about the evils we deal with currently and how the creatures could be part of this story. Concealing the face hiding gender, age, and race, became a key part of these costumes functioning conceptually. The uncanny and the unknown of what lies beneath these shaggy figures. To not see what’s hiding under the suit, if there is anything hiding. Or are these creatures real?
Emily Tilbrook, Fine Art BA, 3rd year
