VISUAL ARTS
From an early age, I have considered myself extremely creative. This skill stems from my appreciation and practice of visual arts.
“In a world where we are encouraged to move forward and not dwell on the past I, as an artist, fear issues of anxiousness but also see the promising hope of progression. I present to a local audience, the underlying concept throughout my works, “Progression of Fear and Hope”
— Oliver Czekirda, April 2018
Transformation Punk
Mixed media of trash ( bin bags, cabling, old jeans, newspaper, coffee capsules, spray paints)
Works with Vivienne Westwood’s variety of colors, Gareth Pugh’s dark tones and Gaultier’s take on the Union Jack, express my concept of punk emerging from political rebellion. Trouser legs have news articles of riots with messages, where cables move these up to a plastic bag jacket, meeting the origins of Punk. Enormous spikes merged with cables and a large scaled Mohawk scare the middle classes. Showing rebellion of British youth, aluminum handcuffs represent the many arrests that took place.
Aging Us
Clay, Metal, Magnets
My piece is a response to the topic of life and death of humans. Sculpted using clay, I emphasize the bones of a spine symbolizing an aging human. This is composed with an upright form then bent representing closer to death. Around the spine are metal wired veins that shatter along with the progression of the spine towards death. I am inspired from the use of strings by Barbara Hepworth to create flow and from Kate McDowell, her compositions of how death interacts with the world around us.
Childhood Trilogy
Acrylics, gouache, black charcoal on a wooden board
Influenced by Kent Lindfors layering and Jenny Saville’s faces, my work depicts struggles of growing from baby, early teen and into adulthood, layered over objects of childhood. Each acrylic background layer shows these interests with subtle tones of gouache on top. By projecting and blending lines of the charcoal faces, this contrasts and emphasizes them over the gradient of blue showing the glum baby fearing the red hostile teenager, whilst the young adult on yellow looks to a future.
Talking Table
8mm Steel wire, prospects, lava rocks, plastics, clay, paint, plaster cast
Talking Table considers the work of Ross Lovergrove and Philippe Starck offering a deeper insight into terrorism and its effects on Muslim society. Plaster cast hands with a rhythm of deathly biblical words on top, show religious groups moving towards an innocent clay made Muslim woman. Above, a wire formed question mark functions asking the user to discuss terrorism and its prevention. Around the women is a variety of rubble remains from the unnecessary destruction of her home.
Clouds of Emotion
Digital Media - Ink photography, landscape portraits, Photoshop
My piece portrays waves of subtle emotion clouding rational thought. With works of different eras, the aims of Franz Marc and Alberto Seveso showing a conflict of organic forms, prompts my piece. In the background, a black and white portrait of a girl shows her emotions to connect with the viewer. Harmony is created by the movement of inks, each colour representing a different negative emotion on the girl. As these emotions move across her face, the focal point switches to the flow of ink.
Avoid the Future
Mixed media (waxed leaves, waxed wooden sticks, copper wire, board pins, tissue paper, printed paper)
This piece depicts the fear of robots influencing human males into sexual assault, over a background of celebrities involved in sexual assaults. In the foreground, an ink painted male and female are in harmony representing unity between nature and technology. Buttons of colour emphasize the concept of the man touching the women near her provocative area to control her for his own pleasure. This work is developed from the inspiration of Tim Noble, Sue Webster and Anthony Goldsworthy.
Back in the Day when we used to Write.
Spray paint, acrylics, pen, on a large card paper. This is on a canvas
This piece depicts the hopes of technology with simple communication. On top of a dark painted canvas, is a projected old letter written by my grandmother where low vibrant colours portray the ‘old fashioned’ communication of the past. Emphasized with spray-paints and acrylics, emoji’s using letters of emotion from Xu Bing’s typography art, peer through ink blots as a focal point of simplistic communication being more recognizable. Visiting Ben Heine’s tonal vs colour works, encouraged my work.
Reaching Out
Intaglio Print - (with Ink)
From Franz Marc’s futuristic style and Roy Lichtenstein's distorted shapes, Reaching Out shows a personal issue of a British boy seeking German nationality after Brexit. Left, from an intaglio process using etched lines, is a British boy where leading lines show his hand reaching the unified shapes of the German flag within merged European union stars. The metaphor of the devil depicting Nigel Farage (former leader of Britain’s Independence Political Party) is shown on the right laughing at Britain’s insecurity.