RACHEL EMILY TAYLOR

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

When I was growing up my grandmother would sing me to sleep with lullabies and they would soothe away my fears of the dark. She would read me comforting fairy tales and my toes would curl with pleasure knowing that I was safe in bed, whilst these Princesses of long ago were struggling through their unfortunate situations. Fairy tales became a ritual that I needed to hear before being able to fall asleep; I believe that they “provide a safe place for children to tackle their inner demons” (Orestein 2002:12). They bred in me a love of storytelling and image creation.

The German poet Schiller wrote that, “deeper meaning resides in the fairy tales told to me in my childhood than in the truth that is taught through life” (Bettleheim, 1991:5). This phrase communicates one of the many reasons why I became obsessed with the topic, and it overtook my creative work and my Dissertation during my graduate degree.

I am fascinated with their ability to magnify normality and create an unsettling atmosphere, something that keeps me curious and searching for a better understanding. I believe that they stand as a metaphor for universal human problems, translating “the eternal truths of mental life into concrete actions and images” (Tatar 1987:65).

My portfolio is dominated by the fairy tale themes: childhood anxiety, psychological aspects of cannibalism, femininity, inverted birthing, the fantastical, ungovernable appetites and the incorporation food. I use various media, ranging from sculpture to costume, which I eventually combine to become one complete final piece that I record through a lens. I like to create tactile sculptures that encourage audience involvement, , and an example of this is a supporting image within my project Once Upon A Time: The Taboo Par Excellence, in which I moulded a face entirely out of cake and displayed it at an exhibition in the Rag Factory. I set up recording equipment to document peoples’ interaction with the piece. I wanted to see whether or not they would be tempted to eat it, even though there was no sign on display allowing them to do so. The footage creates an image of The Uncanny within a fantasy context when various hands slyly enter the frame to steal away sections of icing “flesh”.

I hope you enjoy looking through my portfolio.

Rachel Emily Taylor

BIG BAD WOLF

This collection of work stems closely from my Dissertation, which was titled Once Upon A Time, When Little Red Riding Hood Ate Her Grandmother and Drank Her Blood: Discussing The Metaphor of Consumption in Traditional Fairy Tales and Childhood Culture.

I reconsidered that Little Red Riding Hood was willingly devoured. By entering the wolf, he becomes the passageway to the loss of childhood innocence. The girl is reborn a woman. “In myth and fairy tale, the metaphor of devouring often stands for sex” (Warner 1994:259).

My final piece for this project was a film shot on super 8mm in a studio titled ”Grandmother’s Bones”. I also made a large 3-D sculpture of a wolf head to use as a film prop, as well as creating a collection of screen prints, sculptures and photographs.

The act of sexual penetration is conveyed through the performance art in the film. I used the colour red in my film to symbolise menstrual blood, violence and sex. 

This project was exhibited at Super Graphics and can be seen in further detail here.

NOTHING IN NOWHERE

Nothing In Nowhere is Edward A. Guy, Phil Guy and Rachel Emily Taylor.

Nothing In Nowhere is a recording project based in London, UK. The self-titled debut album is a collection of material that mixes heavily-digitised instrumentation with analogue engineering techniques. Written and recorded between May 2010 and June 2011, the songs feature burnt-out guitar melodies and heavily processed drum-loops over layers of tape-hiss, field-recordings and radio static.

Have a look over at the website: nothinginnowhere.com
The bandcamp: store.nothinginnowhere.com
And soundcloud: soundcloud.com/nothing-in-nowhere

For alternative etchings and imagery, please feel free to visit my blog. Click Here.

ANIMAL IDENTITY

I was working on a project creating ‘profile pictures’ for a small company called CAN to use on their internet network. I created over thirty illustrations for the brief.

I had to create an image that was half-animal and half-human. Only creating the ‘head’ of the figure, without the body.

The colours that I used were strictly directed – since I had to fit into their branding design – even down to not adding colour to the skin incase it implied racial discrimination. Also, I was given a list of animals to work with.

CAN also planned to use the illustrations in a Grid format, which you can see tested at the bottom of the page.

COLOURS

A commercial Music Video created for the Phelps track Colours. During the project, I had the pleasure of working with the talented, fellow LCC graduate Charlie Hocking. We worked together to create the concept, props, set, as well as completing all of the filming and editing.

www.charliehocking.co.uk

Make up: Hayley Jones

Model:  Christie Leigh

Phelps now records under the name Little Loud and can be found at www.myspace.com/itslittleloud

ONCE UPON A TIME

This project grew from literary research I undertook for my graduate Dissertation and it links very closely to my work on the “big bad wolf”.

During my reading I came across the original oral version of Little Red Riding Hood, called The Grandmother’s Tale. The story involves the wolf latching the doors shut with the Grandmother’s tendons and tricking the naive girl into eating her own grandmother.

I used the following words from the fairy tale:

And a little cat said, “She is a slut who eats the flesh and blood of her granny!”

Alongside work by Marina Warner and Jack Zipes, I read into Freud’s theory of the Uncanny and Kristeva’s ideas on abjection. I created a short film shot on super 8mm, as well as drawings and photographs.

TRACES

This is my most honest and personal project. I shot a film about my Grandfather. Even though he passed away a long time before I was born, I chose to focus on him because – although I had never met him – I feel like he has played a strong role throughout my life.

I wanted to create something entirely honest. I secretly recorded my family talking about him so that I could capture their true emotions. Therefore the sound I have used in my final piece is entirely honest because they are unaware that it’s being documented. I have overlaid their true emotions and voices on top of their “aware conversation” that has been filmed.

I read Family Secrets by Kuhn, and took note of the following quote: “The process of mourning as a passionate or hyper-remembering of all memories bound up with the person we have lost. Mourning is represented as a dizzying phantasmagoria of memory.”  A phantasmagoria is described as an

Exhibition of optical illusions chiefly by means of magic lantern (…) a shifting series (…) of phantasms or imaginary figures, as seen in a dream or fevered condition (Kuhn 2002:105).

I tried to replicate this effect through my filming method. Unfortunately, due to the personal nature of the piece, the film is only available to watch upon request. Please don’t hestitate to get in contact.

SKETCHBOOK