The work plays with the nurturing associations of textiles by juxtaposing beauty with repulsion and contrasting innocence with iniquity.
A recurring theme within Rosina’s work is the exploration of the destructive desires that lay buried within the unconscious mind and how this has led to ordinary civilians committing terrible acts of cruelty and genocide.
An interest in duplicity and trickery, led to an exploration of the ideas expressed in Sigmund Freud’s essay on the Uncanny (1919) – ‘das heimlich’ (the canny) which implies something that is homely and friendly; while as a contrast ‘das unheimlich’ (the uncanny) denotes an uncomfortable, strange or alien object or experience. An earlier series of work used familial fabrics collaged with stitch and childhood imagery – the work appeared naive upon first inspection, though entangled amongst the apparent domesticity and saccharine colours were images of death and violence. The flies which appear within the work represent the spread of moral decay and are harbingers of death - they instinctively know when an organism is weak and dying. Friedrich Nietzsche’s Power of The Herd theory states that the group opinion is strong than any one person – the flies’ power is not in the size of the individual, but in their ability act as a collective.
This theme progressed into a collection of work involving childrens toys which explore the unsettling effects of the uncanny; when the term can refer to a pleasant or familiar object concealing or being transformed into something that is strange and disturbing. The comforting persona of childrens’ toys is rendered uncanny when knitted into forms reminiscent of internal organs, or with the addition of teeth and hair in unnatural place or the absence of a head. The toys represent the microcosm world of dreams, where normal rules and taboo are subverted; the toys naive desires are unrestrained by social limitation as they fulfil forbidden oedipal urges as the toys interbreed to create bizarre hybrids, while their perverted thoughts reveal themselves as peculiar physical manifestations.
The body of work inspired by the forms of internal organs took inspiration from Wilhelm Reich’s The Mass Psychology of Fascism (1934); where Reich arranges Freud’s model of the id, ego and super-ego into layers. The surface layer is our socially conscious, civilised persona, while the middle layer is the equivalent of the Freudian unconscious and contains sadistic and sexual urges. The inner core is essentially virtuous, although its good intentions can become perverse and tainted when passing through the corrupt middle layer. The series explores the primitive hidden self that lurks behind the cultivated facade – coarse animal hairs protrude amongst the lavish embroidery, while the boundary between the inner and outer body is blurred as fluids stain as uncontrollable elements seeping amongst the order and civilisation.
Creative Qualifications
City & Guilds Part 1 Patchwork and Quilting
City & Guilds Part 1 & 2 Embroidery
Certificate of H.E. Textile Design, Huddersfield University
Diploma of H.E. Stitched Textiles (Distinction), East Berkshire College, Windsor
B.A. Honours Fine Art (First Class), Chichester University
Teaching Qualifications
C&G Level 4 – (PTLLS) Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector
Membership of Professional Bodies
Licentiate Membership of the Society of Designer Craftsmen (LSDC)
AN + AIR
South Coast Design Forum
Prizes
The Hayes Prize 2009, awarded by Chichester University for academic excellence in the Visual and Performing Arts
Exhibitions
2007 - Diploma Show, East Berkshire College, Windsor
2008 - Hatch, Otter Gallery, Chichester University
2008 - Open Exhibition, Worthing Museum and Art Gallery
2008 - The Studios, Art Van Go, Knebworth
2008 - Tactile Textiles, Red House Museum, Christchurch
2008 - The Portsmouth Open, City Museum
2009 - In House, Pallant House, Chichester
2009 - Degree show, ArtOne, Chichester University
2009 - Freedom, Forge Needle Museum, Redditch
2009 - Dreams and Nightmares, West End Centre,
Aldershot
2010 - The Uncanny, Harvey Gallery, Guildford
2010 - FromONE, Acquire Gallery, London