Joanna Hulin
Degree: BA Fine Art
University: Falmouth University
Graduation Year: 2015
New Blood Art Statement
Joanna Hulin represents humanity in an honest and individual way. Her expressive use of paint contrasted with a precise attention to form gives the works a connection with reality whilst maintaining an important focus on the aesthetics of painting. Taking influence from the stigma surrounding loss and mortality, the work is an interpretation of some of humanities biggest insecurities. Using paint as a medium by which to explore these themes, in a nod to the tradition of portraiture commissions, a painting of hands touches us with its familiarity, it seems to have been painted with tender appreciation. The paint makes the figures permanent in time and space exceeding our own lifetimes. Thus, not only does the painting survive but also the feeling of the emotional engagement with model and artist.
Artist Statement
My work aims to deconstruct the taboos of loss and mortality, and how they are reimagined in the 21st Century. In a world that is dominated by photographs, I take an interest how the historic act of painting can still be used to create a more permanent, stationary remnant of an individual. I intend to bring back a stark reality into public consciousness, whilst simultaneously reconstructing and reassigning dignity to the figure within the image. I focus on moments that could be considered a ‘last portrait’ – something that commemorates a final moment of life, or which emphasises aspects of humanity that we do not tend to think about.