A trope in romantic films after a painful break-up is the ritualistic and cathartic experience of destroying an ex-lover’s possessions. This destruction is seen as a fresh start; a symbolic process of release and re-birth. ‘Break-Up’ is a future expansive series of work currently in its infancy. For each artwork in the series, a separated couple donates an object gifted to them or left behind by the other during their relationship. These objects are then broken down and transformed into art, granting them new life and meaning. The new artworks (although made of the same materials) are changed forever by their experience, like their owners. To date I have created two such artworks using a scarf and t-shirt, and a magazine and love letter. I wish to use this opportunity to develop these pieces into a substantial body of work which encourages consideration of human nature through contrasting romantic relationships.
My artwork relies increasingly on the use of discarded or donated materials. The bursary would allow me to develop new forms of engagement with my audience, resulting in mutually beneficial relationships where items are donated in return for artwork or expertise (perhaps in the form of workshops). The project relies on ex-couples donating objects. As romantic separation is often a sensitive subject, I wish to use a portion of the bursary to set up an open call and museum-like drop-off space for donations.
Donated objects will naturally vary in material, composition and size, meaning for each artwork I may need to learn new techniques and processes. For this reason, I would also like to use the bursary to attend classes/workshops to learn new techniques and hone existing skills. To produce any pieces that require deep specialist knowledge, I would employ expert fabricators or assistants such as jewellers or glass blowers.
Lastly, I will use the bursary for travel costs, including travel to meet with donors and to Darlington. It has also been a long-term aspiration take a research trip to the Museum of Broken Relationships in Croatia which would provide great insight and further inspiration for this project.
This project relies on interaction and cooperation with people. Because of the unusual and highly personal nature of this project that involves collaborating with people outside of the arts, I feel that it could spark conversation and a buzz around it. I hope to engage with locals in Darlington, encouraging them to be part of the project through donating objects and therefore become more absorbed in the local arts and feel a sense of partnership over the exhibition. The process of object donation will be through an online open call, a drop-in/meet the artist event and a space set up where people can leave donated objects in a mini-museological/gallery set-up. I hope this will create stories and legacy around the project, enticing visitors back to Darlington.
I am currently working with a film-maker on the planning stages of a film about my work. If awarded the bursary I would also use this opportunity to promote the project (and the arts in Darlington) through the film. Beyond the exhibition, I hope the artworks produced will tour to other locations (perhaps even to the Museum of Broken Relationships) extending knowledge of Darlington’s creative arts further afield.
Inspired by encounters between forensic science and the domestic environment, I am a multidisciplinary artist exploring our relationship with everyday matter and the insight this gives into human desire, fear and mortality. My work often appropriates and manipulates unorthodox materials including dust, human ash, lime scale, snail slime, chewing gum and blood. Transient, taboo or everyday detritus becomes the focus of intense scrutiny or worship. Mundane objects are raised to the status of relics or changed beyond recognition through reappropriation. In this way banal, discarded or taboo items are granted a second life. I aim to shine a light on the small traces of life that are deeply poignant or represent momentous life events such as birth, love, loss, sickness and death. Although the human often appears absent, the artwork acts a trace that like forensic evidence, tells a story. In recent years I have been using the everyday materials of family life to reflect on my experience of motherhood. I have most recently exhibited work at the Royal Society of Sculptors in London and in a group exhibition at Forum Grandela in Lisbon.
I graduated with a Masters from the Royal College of Art’s Fine Art Printmaking department in 2010. Before this I completed a BA from Manchester School of Art’s Illustration and Animation Department.
Yes. I am currently working on a commission from the Royal Society of Sculptors which I won through their First Plinth Public Art Award. I previously won Anthology Art Prize, the Mann Group Drawing Prize, Black Swan Open 3D Award and the Royal Society of Sculptors Bursary Award.
Between 2009 and 2014 I co-founded ‘Rented by the Hour’; an artist collective that aimed to exhibit artwork in unusual spaces. We organised and curated shows in disused shops and a hotel being used as a brothel. More recently we have organised online group exhibitions.
I have been commissioned by Broomfield Sculpture Garden, MGS04 Festival and Science Gallery Melbourne, Dublin and London. I am currently working on a commission for the Royal Society of Sculptors.
ColArt have purchased some of my artwork as well as Marlborough College.
My work has featured on Artlyst’s ‘Top 10 Artists under 30’, Sky News, BBC News, BBC’s Summer Exhibition Programme, London Live, Evening Standard, Sunday Mirror’s Notebook Magazine, After Nyne Magazine, BBC News Scotland, BBC Radio Scotland, Phoenix Magazine and the Guardian.
I have taken part in residencies at ColArt’s Griffin Gallery, the University of Abertay Forensics Lab & DCA Print Studio as part of IMPACT 8 Print conference, Marlborough College and Centrespace Gallery. I also took part in a Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Arts between from 2012 to 2016 and an online residency with the Biophilium.
Email: bea@beatricehaines.com
Address: 26 Bread Street, Warminster, Wiltshire, BA12 8DF, GB
Local Authority: Wiltshire
