Nerve-wracking drive with decorated engine
THIS week we talk to sculptor Janina Holloway, whose works form part of a very diverse creative event in Anglesey.
Q
Tell us about your family
A
I studied Sculpture at Camberwell College of Arts in London after having worked and travelled for 10 years once I left school at 18. My first degree was in Music and German.
I live with my husband and three daughters, having returned from London to live on Anglesey shortly before the birth of our first children.
My husband has dabbled in various occupations from environmental consultancy to stringed instrument restoration to plant genetics, and is a violinist.
My three daughters (twin seven year olds and a four year old) all go to Llandegfan school and are an energetic bunch, currently learning to play the cornet and the violin and love to spend many an
hour practising ambitious gymnastics moves around the house and garden!
Q
What are you best known for?
A
In terms of my creative/ sculptural work I am best known for my altered bronze and copper plumbing works embellished with vinyl doily. I have also worked on car engines and lawn mowers. Generally I am drawn to all things industrial or mechanical. I have also worked in primary and secondary schools as a Creative Practitioner, using a range of creative explorations and teaching mechanisms to grow enthusiasm for learning and try to improve maths and
oracy skills in children between the ages of seven and 12 years old.
Q
Tell us about your exhibition
A
The exhibition is called ‘Sui Generis, the Possibilities of a House’ and is at Plas Bodfa, Llangoed, Anglesey. Sixty five projects from 61 creatives will fill the entirety of Plas Bodfa, a currently empty manor house. The multi-disciplinary group art exhibition explores the idea of ‘sui generis’, a Latin phrase meaning “of its (his, her, their) own kind; in a class by itself; unique”. It has been adopted by the legal profession for unusual buildings, properties that fall outside normal designation. It runs from April 13 to April 28.
Q
What can people expect?
A
With performance and painting, collage and ceramics, skateboarding and singing, poetry and polyrhythmic drumming, fairytales and photography, games and gramophones, sculpture and storytelling, re-enactments and a retroscope, this exhibition is a one-time opportunity to fill the currently vacant 36 room / 1,000 sqm space with creative acts, before complete renovation begins. Q
Tell us five things which make your exhibition great?
A
I’m hoping to invite the viewer to interact with my work by encouraging an inspection by mechanics’ lamp. Come and find out! Q
Tell us what’s good about the venue
A
It is an intriguing and family friendly space with artworks both inside and out. Spectacular views to the ever changing skies above Snowdonia and the Menai Strait.
Q
Who is your favourite artist and why?
A
Marcel Duchamp, 1887 to 1968, in particular his urinal. It changed the way art was made and considered for ever. He is the father of conceptual art in my view and a great inspiration to me.
Q
What piece of work are you most proud of and why?
A
For my second year show at Camberwell College of Arts in London I covered an entire Ford Fiesta engine with vinyl doily before driving it into a large boat warehouse for the show. It was a turning point for my work in that it rooted my fascination for pattern, repetition and new skin on industrial, utilitarian, functional found objects.
The journey back to Camberwell in that car, stopping every five minutes for the engine to cool and not melt the entire artwork, was the most nerve wracking journey I’ve ever made!
Q
What’s next for you?
A
My next venture is attempting to unite my love for colour and pattern with furniture… perhaps branching out into the design world. I am currently dumpster diving/freecycling and building up a collection of chairs to experiment on...