Background
ideas
My work ranges across a wide variety of media - from sculpture and installation,
to photography, digital imaging and video. Ultimately, however, I regard
myself as a printmaker who is concerned with developing and extending the
discipline to suit my needs as a practicing, contemporary artist. For example,
research for the series of works featured in the exhibition “Behind
Appearance” was conducted in the library of the Royal College of
Surgeons in Edinburgh where I concentrated on 18th and 19th Century anatomical
drawings. Considerable experimentation and adaptation of printmaking techniques,
using both water based and oil based inks, were required in order to produce
imagery which could be layered on to a variety of surfaces. I developed
a method of printmaking using carborundum grit, which enabled the layering
of of photographic and drawn images. In this work the much larger than
life sized, anatomical, drawings of the flayed figure became a new source
of body imagery as well as marking the reversal of the layers of materials
and the bindings of the body in earlier work.
In ‘Chimera’,
a video and sound installation comprising of eight different films
projected onto four latex screens, each of which is split down the
centre and angled in space. The location of these screens is such
that the viewer is partially surrounded by the work and is invited
to make their own connections between its various components. The
sound of the spoken word is itself a montage of poetry, fragments
of which are derived from a variety of different sources - sociology,
psychoanalysis and feminist theory. The research involved experimentation
into the combination of traditional printmaking techniques with computer
generated imagery, creating a new way to output the digital imagery
and to develop digital layering techniques with an element of historical
time by studying and incorporating imagery from earlier work of the
1970’s to introduce a ‘recycling’ of ideas and
themes into the new collaborative output.
In the series
of prints for ‘Intangible Bodies’ my research expanded
upon digital retouching techniques to create a series of manicured
silicon photographic images, contasted with monochromatic, traditional
etchings, using an adaptation of the photogravure process.
In the work for the Falkland Islands project, research into materials and techniques
of collage and montage were developed to withstand extreme temperature
changes.
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Collaborative
Research Projects
In terms of collaborative research, certain achievements in my professional
life have given me a reputation in the UK and in the USA. From 1999- 2000
I was President of UUSCOT (United States/ Scotland Consortium) To date
my involvement has resulted in valuable research opportunities not only
for myself but for colleagues and students. I would claim to be a person
who can see opportunities for initiatives and projects, develop them and
gain the necessary funding, partners, and bring on board the creative people
who will participate in them. I have experience of leading and inspiring
the people involved in creative projects. I was very involved in the proposals
and establishment of a city arts center for Dundee now well known as the
DCA.
In 1999 I led
a team of five artists and designers and seven students from the
University of Dundee in a series of collaborative projects involving
HM Forces in the Falkland Islands, HE the Governor and The Falkland
Islanders and the City of Dundee. The Ministry of Defense funded
us and flew staff and students out to the Falkland Islands to plan
and later complete the works. The project attracted substantial profile
and publicity for the University
.
From this project four of the staff at DJCAD including myself developed a series
of works as a direct response to our visits to the Falkland Islands twenty
years after the War with Argentina. The works were exhibited at the Imperial
War Museum in 2002, 'Traces of Conflict'
Environmental
protection in remote environments
In 1999 she led a project for the Ministry of Defence to improve the physical
environment for servicemen and women stationed in the Falkland Islands. The
work in the Falklands led to the establishment of 'Project Atlantis' and inspired
an exhibition on the Falkland's Conflict for the Imperial War Museum in 2002,
'Traces of Conflict'. Project Atlantis was a research and consultancy group
concerned with environmental protection and education. Shemilt was the Artistic
Director and, along with team leader Brigadier Nicholls raised the funding
necessary for the first project, with lectures and briefings to key public
bodies and companies during 1999-2001. In 2002 a comprehensive web site was
completed which brings the beauty of the Island of South Georgia and its natural
heritage to worldwide Internet access. In 2006 David Nicholls died and Shemilt
helped to develop Project Atlantis into the Centre for Remote Environments.
The Demarco
Archives
In November 2004 the AHRC awarded Euan McArther, Arthur Watson, and Elaine
Shemilt a Resource Enhancement Award of £312,327 for “The Demarco
Archives: accessing a 40-Year Dialogue between Richard Demarco and the
European Avant-Garde”. For the past four decades Demarco has contributed
to Scotland’s cultural life. The archive is selected from his 250,000
photographs plus books, and documents, relevant to contemporary visual
art, theatre, literature, cultural studies, history and politics. The three
year project is based at the Visual Research Centre and accessible online
through www.demarco-archive.ac.uk.
The
Scottish Crop Research Institute - A Blueprint for Bacterial
Life
A current collaborative research project started in 2004, with Scientists from
the Scottish Crop Research Institute: Dr Ian Toth and Dr Leighton Pritchard.
It involves representational scientific data, visual art and sound, and whether
a Science-Art fusion can move the boundaries of visual and audio interpretation.
The full genome sequence of the bacterial potato plant pathogen (Erwinia) carotovora
subsp. atroseptica (Eca) has been fully sequenced in a project led by the Scottish
Crop Research Institute in collaboration with the Sanger Institute. Shemilt
developed a series of prints in 2005 from the scientific data and subesquently
animations in two and three dimensions for projection. The artistic re-interpretation
of scientific data has contributed to new insights. Rather than simply identifying
genes unique to a pathogen, the screen prints and animations revealed the presence
of other genes present in all of the bacteria, possibly representing genes
essential to all forms of bacteria. The pilot stages of the project were funded
by a grant from the Mylnefield Trust. Further prints, Hi-Defintion animations
and music sequences are in progress. |
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