SOPHIA CHRISTIE

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I have renamed this artwork Turning Point as it signified a transformation and renewed focus in my practice and because the art is displayed in the form of a mobile.

 

The artwork responds directly to the location of The Crypt beneath St Pancras Church and was made for the exhibition ‘In the Shadows of a Subterranean River’.

 

The concept for this artwork was to display a child’s collection of shrapnel alongside faces which had been damaged by shrapnel on the front line. It brought together the account of Georgina King who stayed in the crypt when it was an air raid shelter with the horrors of the war across the channel.

 

I extensively researched children’s shrapnel collections during The Blitz and soldiers’ injuries caused by shrapnel. I became most interested not in the shocking images of disfigured faces documented by Henry Tonks, but in the incredible stories of recovery and the medical advances which helped these soldiers to rebuild their lives.  

 

It fascinated me that it was artists and sculptors who were entrusted with reconstructing soldiers’ faces. Francis Derwent Wood and Anna Coleman Ladd would make bespoke metal facial prosthetics which were hand painted to match the wearer’s skin tone. I found it incredible that well before plastic surgery, art could literally heal soldiers and help them to return to normal life.

 

I displayed my own paintings of facial prosthetics alongside fragments of shrapnel- showing both the cause of the injury and the process of recovery and not dwelling on the injuries themselves.

 

This artwork helped to solidify the themes of repair, rehabilitation and recovery which I had identified as important in my work. It was a departure from traditional portraiture and allowed me to present multiple fragments in a self-standing installation piece. I felt that my artwork worked well in the dark area chosen by the curators which could easily be imagined as a child’s air raid shelter room or a WWII trench.

 

The presentation of my artwork was heavily influenced by Louise Bourgeois. Suspending artwork is common in her installations, suggesting instability and physical or psychological turmoil as they move and revolve above the viewer. It was clear from the crypt location that my artwork would need to be self-standing as it could not hang directly from the ceiling. I was pleased that there was still enough instability to allow the individual elements to revolve.