Artist Focus | Kirsty Whitlock

I wanted to feature Kirsty Whitlock as I feel like her work is a mixture of Harriet Popham and Josh Blackwell and as both have been pivotal in my development so far, I thought I'd explore Whitlock's way of working and see if I could apply it to my own. 

Kirsty's work is all in the name of consumerism and how we're so quick to use everything once and throw it away without care or concern for our environment and the effect we're having on it. She uses recycled materials she finds around her to create her pieces, such as old newspapers, train tickets and - similarly to Josh Blackwell - plastic bags. All of her pieces have a strong social message embedded with them and they are all striking and hard not to take notice of!

I love her added sense of humour that reminds me a lot of the attitude of Banksy's work, and she uses this to create mock newspaper headlines on a lot of her work that highlight the issues shes passionate about.

Her use of embroidery is interesting as she plays on the often distressed and tatty nature of her materials and makes them seem more so, all by the clever use of embroidery. Her stitching is very raw and imperfect, and I really like that she leaves her threads hanging loose and frayed, which adds to the run down effect she works towards.

While Kirsty's work is quite bleak and not as colourful as I would like to interpret into my own development, I really like the raw and real aspect of her work and it's something I will take away with me as I continue with my progress. I like how she uses recycled materials to avoid waste and targets the issue of consumerism with a real message and a hint of humour. Her works are often a collage of different materials and ideas which I will also take away with me as I start to plan my final outcome.


*photos found at https://kirstywhitlock.weebly.com/