ANNA CHAPMAN

Soundmarks, mix media installation, 2008

Anna Chapman is an artist based in Edinburgh. Born 1978, York, Anna studied Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh College of Art, graduating in 2003. In 2008 she completed a Masters in Fine Art: Drawing at Wimbledon College of Art, London. Recent projects include Subjects for Melancholy Retrospection, (solo exhibition at Newhailes, The National Trust, as part of Edinburgh International Art Festival); He do the Police in Different Voices (group show at Blyth Gallery, London) and 100 Seel Street, an installation in an abandoned house in Liverpool (Liverpool Independents’ biennial).

‘My approach to making work has to do with the state of being speculative, and involves a basic curiosity about how art gets made. I use a variety of media and generally begin with collecting material information out in the street or at a particular site, either using drawing, note-taking, a camera or sound recording device or by literally bringing found materials into the studio. In the studio a work may come about through small reformulations or juxtapositions to this captured information. This involves some sort of transfer of what I have collected across media in a particular way - for example breaking down a camera pan into a series of screen prints, or enlarging a collection of pencil marks into three-dimensional models. Such transfers entail losses, gains and distortions to the original material information, according to the particular characteristics of the medium/media involved. In the process gaps occur, leading to new possibilities for both the realisation and reception of the work. The end-form of the work may vary from a small pencil drawing to a sound installation, but in each case involves in some way a feedback loop between the medium used and the content it is carrying. I see this as a two-way exchange of information whereby the fragility and limitations of each artistic medium contribute essentially to what is conveyed.’

www.annachapman.co.uk