This project began with an interest in exploring work that was temporary, inspired by the work of Piero Manzoni (artists breath for example). I then through research and conversations with colleagues realised that Memento Mori perfectly encapsulated this. Memento Mori translating to remember you must die. My final piece embodies this theme fully, incorporating natural materials that will deteriorate over the course of the works hypothetical exhibition time. It also includes imagery symbolic of death in the form of a skull and bandages.

• 

• 

I chose the materials used in my work due to there symbolic nature and the inevitability of there deterioration. I used bare plaster as it shares the way it looks with bandages, bandages being used in the process of mummification. During my development I researched preservation as a means to visually and conceptually convey my theme. Mummification being a form of preservation I found it fitting to integrate it with my final piece. I used flowers as they have conceptual connotations related to death and life and they would wilt and die, changing the original look of the work. My experimentation with gorse flowers came due to finding out that they were symbolic of fertility. My final choice to choose to use the work using roses, was because roses have immediate connotations of mourning and death. people often place roses on graves. I used I more three-dimensional approach as I found my two-dimensional experimentation’s didn’t have the stand out effect I was looking for. The method came organically, and through creating three works I was able to refine my approach and create a complete final piece. My development allowed me to appreciate the quality and effectiveness of my first flower creation.

• 

• 

I explored scale within my experimentation but feel it could have been explored further, maybe integrating the sculptural side to my work further. I can envision a sculpture made of clay adorned with flowers could have an interesting effect.

• 

• 

The artists I have researched have effected my final outcome greatly. The work of Piero Manzoni and Anya Gallacio being the most influential. Manzoni’s distaste for the value driven art world and his creation of artworks that poked fun at this inspired me to create temporary works myself. Gallacio’s use of flowers within her installations directly influenced the use of flowers within my own work.

• 

• 

I did not manage my time efficiently, and although I was faced with unforeseen hurdles in the form of an illness I feel i could still have used my time more effectively. I could do with being more free in my initial experimentation’s and to allow the mediums I work with help dictate what I create. I have a tendency to become bogged down in trying to envision a final work rather than exploring concepts more visually freely, in a practical hands on manner.