“My practice is as varied as my interests. I use many mediums, often beginning with an object of significance to an event or person’s identity & I expand from there.”
Anamnesis Unbroken (Au) & the ‘AU Method’ was created following a collaboration painting backdrops, one of which referred to the theme of home in an abusive household. The technique employed collating images of ordinary household objects connected with the abuse on a piece of canvas, which was then crushed to abstract it. This new object was then painted as a still life in a square format to further obscure it.
This abstraction is a transformative act, turning the negative into a positive. It was developed further as a method for trauma processing, using various mediums to crush & help to let go of negative feelings & memories. Workshops for adults & children were also created to allow anyone to learn & use the AU Method for themselves.
Special attention to colour & light was used to illicit a response from a broad section of people. Different colour palettes were utilised from different sources, including the objects themselves & specific works of art. The personal nature of colour necessitated a variety of palettes. Georgia O’Keeffe was a recurring inspiration.
Visitors to the exhibition reacted strongly to the palettes, most quickly finding a favourite, this immediate appeal opened up a dialogue with the work & its viewer.
Carmen
2022
H 75cm x W 75cm x D5cm
Oil on canvas
This very happy looking painting is the transformation of a negative into a positive, somewhere dark & dangerous into something light & safe.
Locks
2022
H 40cm x W 40cm x D4cm
Oil on canvas
Locks connects two seperate incidents involving break-ins at her home & studio. The anxiety which followed led to hyper-vigilance & a continued tension when in both spaces.
To the Left of the Window
2023
H 100cm x W 100cm x D 5cm
Oil on linen
Toys, childhood objects & crockery hide within the folds, merging memories of sound, imagined scenarios & interiors. Unspoken trauma is given a voice through visual means in the safety of the AU method.
Hopper
2022 - 2023
H 60cm x W 60cm
Oil on canvas
This very happy looking painting is the transformation of a negative into a positive, somewhere dark & dangerous into something light & safe.
On Pointe
2023
H 100cm x W 100cm x D 5cm
Oil on linen
On Pointe captures the figures of two women both performing their entertaining roles in very different ways. One Eastern, one Western they connect through their current states as vessels for perfume. Scent & sight entice & conjure up another memory, resulting in complex plains of view akin to a landscape.
Helve
2022 - 2023
H 60cm x W 60cm
Oil on canvas
Helve explores a personal trauma relating to a personal incident of bullying. Translucent red folds vibrate alongside the turquoise - a palette chosen to emphasise the vulnerable themes in this piece & create a strong reaction to the palette.
The Purple Room
2020
H 75cm x W 75cm x D4cm
Oil on canvas
The Purple Room focuses on a particular traumatic event & the objects associated with it. This title refers to a room inside a temporary residence where the artist slept at the time.
Abstraction as a noun is ironically described as: the quality of dealing with ideas rather than events - "topics will vary in degrees of abstraction". However, this work is an exact combination of two things the peice is dealing with, both variants of ideas & the variants of the memory of the event that is abstracted.
Home
2020
H 110cm x W 95cm
Oil on canvas
The painting Home is the first work made as part of a collaboration with photographer Allie Crewe to produce paintings which would be used as backdrops for her portrait project, I Am…photographing survivors of domestic abuse. It was the first painting where I devised the AU Method.
Home was created through a process devised not only subvert but crush past trauma both literally & psychologically & to transform it into something beautiful.
The story behind Hopper
Going back to an event aged 3 years old when an injury stitched without anaesthesia led to a week of delirium & pulling out all of my stitches. This oil painting on canvas transforms a harrowing experience into a lush green energy. The act of crushing my watercolour painting on paper becomes the still life for this piece.
To see more videos about AU paintings please click to see the painting page HERE.
Dry point etchings:
Plumed
2023
10cm x 10cm / Paper approx 21cm x 30cm hand cut
Dry point etching, hand-coloured watercolour on Awagami Washi paper
Obsessively drawing feathers I found as a young child is the starting point of the crushed drawing then rendered on copper in shades of red & pink.
Birch
2023
10cm x 10cm / Paper approx 21cm x 30cm hand cut
Oil on linen
A silver birch tree sat outside the house providing a high vantage point to the artist when she needed to get away, which all backfired on one fateful day. It is rendered then crushed before drawn in drypoint on a copper plate.
Athenaeum
2023
10cm x 10cm / Paper approx 21cm x 30cm hand cut
Dry point etching, hand-coloured watercolour on Awagami Washi paper
A library of thoughts reside in real time & space as well as the memory. Books provide an escape & a wonderland to explore. The etching is delicately hand coloured in watercolours to imply the fragile nature of memory whilst the palette shows the contrasting folds of the crushed drawing in a mosaic of shapes.
Anamnesis Unbroken (Au) - Many Hands
It is recommended to listen to this film on headphones to experience the ASMR quality the sound layers have.
Two workshops were conducted as part of the project Anamnesis Unbroken (Au) by Laura Noble, culminating in an exhibition that included multiple disciplines including painting, printmaking, drawing, sculpture, photography, collage and this film. 'Anamnesis Unbroken (Au) - Many Hands' is one of the outcomes of the two workshop sessions.
Unwrapping the meaning of Anamnesis Unbroken (Au) presents itself as a visible mending for both artist and viewer. During the exhibition audiences were invited to participate by drawing things they wish to process, begin to let go of, and heal from, before crushing and throwing their drawing into a semi-circle arena in front of the film projection. These works formed an audience mirroring the film through action, sound and process. We do not see the final works of those on film. Instead, we are invited to make our own.
Images: AU Method Children’s workshop - at NOVA with families from Grenfell.
All participants made wonderful abstracted works. Their hands were filmed as they crushed their drawings for an interactive film you can watch here.
To see the amazing work that NOVA does please see here & to donate & support their important work please click here.
Gather
2023
Pigment Print on Canson Platine
Taken during the Au workshop in partnering with Nova a group of women drew & crushed their drawings. This part of the Au Method is essential to mark the pivotal moment between remembering difficult memories & trauma, next transforming them into beautiful collaged artworks.
Squeeze
2023
Pigment Print on Canson Platine
Taken during the Au workshop in partnering with Nova a drawing is squeezed whilst its author thinks about the event or memory it depicts.
Bracket
2023
Pigment Print on Canson Platine
Hands release the drawing they have just crushed before transforming it into a beautiful artwork to aid trauma processing.
Calamus
2023
Permajet double-sided Matt paper, 23ct gold leaf, bell jar
Calamus refers to the hollow lower part of the shaft of a feather or a quill. Obsessively drawing feathers from the age of 6, I began a life long love of drawing from life. Quills bore equal fascination as early writing implements rendering feathers even more magical as a representation of escape through flight & literature. Two of my favourite things.
*See sketchbook images below
Avon
2023
Permajet double-sided Matt paper, 23ct gold leaf, bell jar
Avon returns to themes of perfume made by the cosmetics company in the shape of different objects. In this case an old fashioned telephone which also connects to the place I lived & a connection to a telephone at the bottom of the stairs near the front door. This door was never used by anyone living there, or those who knew its residents. The notion of behind closed doors where things are unseen reverberate when contained in a glass dome.
*Featured in sketchbook below.
See the whole set of sculptures here.
T-bar
2023
Permajet double-sided Matt paper, 23ct gold leaf, bell jar
T-bar reconnects several red objects including a leather purse, a beloved pair of T-bar Clarkes shoes & ballet shoes from the 1948 Powell & Pressburger film The Red Shoes. The shoes are both a form of joy of dance & the undoing of the wearer. Red shoes have also been used as a symbol solidarity with victims & survivors of domestic violence - a subject I often explore. The ‘T’ also connects to hidden parts of my identity from early childhood - now buried - but not forgotten.
*Featured in sketchbook below.
Speaking about Loci
To view a short video about Loci please click here.
Loci
2023
Wood, paper, LED lights, carpet
Containing the crushed drawings from the project Loci literally ‘houses’ my thoughts & memories. The dolls house represents the head & refers also to the concept of a mind palace, a safe place I can go inside my head as well as wander through its architecture.
The title also means a particular position or place where something occurs or is situated. The drawings contained inside are a collection of traumatic events now located in one place.
When spoken the title can also be mistaken for Loki. Loki was regarded by the ancient Norse people as the god of mischief, trickery, & deception.
The contents of the dolls house are no longer present except for two clocks as a reminder that time is present but not linear. The mind recalls memories & trauma in different ways & never chronologically. LED lights twinkle with a cool light like synapses of the brain firing throughout the rooms.
Painted in bright flamingo pink, my camp side revealed & celebrated. Although the work focuses on trauma my presentation to the world is not without humour.
Living Room 1
2022
Collage on paper
Living Room is a cacophony of paper from a complex drawing of a 1970’s carpet which I sat on to draw at my grandparents. This was a time of great upheaval which vibrates in the chaotic details amidst Mid-Century Modern furniture.
I soon saw that the time frame was too long for a workshop & set about simplifying the details in two other versions.
Living Room 2
2022
Collage on paper
The second version of Living Room with a looser rendering of the details, to allow for a more free flowing image.
*To view more AU collages & a video click here.
Living Room 3
2022
Collage on paper
Creating this work in three versions allowed me to time the collage, feel less pressure & process the trauma in a more relaxed way which helped to form the workshop framework.
Cross-legged at the coffee table
2023
Ink & watercolour on Arches Aquarelle hot pressed watercolour paper. (A warm pale cream colour)
113cm x 137cm
Cross-legged at the coffee table harks back to my personal history as a very young child, being taught how to draw from life. Some of the objects & in particular feathers I found in the garden distracted me from the precarious situation my family was in.
This process of drawing objects from life has continued throughout my practice to this day & forms the core of each work.
The paper is left to curl at the bottom to imply the continuation of the lines & three dimensional aspect of the source & the hidden elements within it.
Teardrop
2023
Walnut ink on Arches Aquarelle hot pressed watercolour paper. (A warm pale cream colour)
110cm x 113cm
Teardrop is a deeply personal piece about loss & grief - painted all in one colour, namely walnut ink. The sepia tones set it firmly in the past. It recalls yet moves on from the loss. However, little triggers pop up once in a while. The beautiful song this is named after is one of those triggers for me. The making of the work despite this reminder was joyful. As the ink flowed the memory could be processed, becoming lighter, to fade to the outer edges.
Teardrop
In situ at the Garage Gallery 2023 as part of an exhibition I curated called Hand Signals.
*See the About page for more info on exhibitions, talks etc.
AU Sketchbook
A selection of pages from the sketchbook which houses research & many of the concepts, working out of ideas, palettes, inspiration & tests for the project. Notes were kept about inner narratives, traumas & the origins of some of the objects. Tests for colours, printing, crushing photographic paper tests, workshop & community dialogue notes are all written, drawn & expressed in the book.
Installation images of Anamnesis Unbroken (Au)
The Project:
Anamnesis Unbroken (Au) & the ‘AU Method’ was created following a collaboration painting backdrops, one of which referred to the theme of home in an abusive household. The technique employed collating images of ordinary household objects connected with the abuse on a piece of canvas, which was then crushed to abstract it. This new object was then painted as a still life in a square format to further obscure it.
This abstraction is a transformative act, turning the negative into a positive. It was developed further as a method for trauma processing, using various mediums to crush & help to let go of negative feelings & memories. Workshops for adults & children were also created to allow anyone to learn & use the AU Method for themselves.