Siobhán Humston




‘The Stories We Tell, Parts II & III’
There are two components to this project. The first is a series of ambiguously shaped cut-outs from vintage National Geographic magazines which were, until recently, adhered to the wall in my studio in an urban grid type fashion. The second component, still in progress, will be a short stop motion video of the ninety-seven cut outs being taken down from the wall and set to a soundscape of music and urban noise interwoven with sounds of nature. The piece itself on the wall presents a sort of layered irony, the cut-outs looking like trees, or coral, or antlers; the grid like a city map or river tributaries from an aerial view. Each cut-out contains an element of the man-made, either a vehicle, a watch or a camera, from the adverts sections of the magazines. The viewer participates in the piece by building the story from their own view point. ‘The Manifest of the Wall’ is a perfect forum in which to present this installation, where the piece sprawls, expands and grows beyond the confines of what is conceived as ‘art on the wall’. 


Bio

I am a visual artist from Vancouver, Canada, studying at Falmouth University for the MFA award. 
My full time practice consists predominantly of painting, drawing and more recently I have begun to exhibit sculpture and photography. My aim while in the UK is to incorporate more of the elements that I have been experimenting with over the course of my art career but have not yet exhibited in a professional capacity. These aspects are video with soundscapes and using geographical or architectural space to make coherent installations with some of all of the aforementioned creative elements. 

I am interested in the juxtaposition of man-made aspects into my established visual lexicon of organic elements to present ideas of interaction with and displacement from our natural environment. Currently I am working on several multi-disciplinary projects, including ‘The Stories We Tell, Parts II & III’, a large scale graphite drawing (152 x 518cm), a community based installation involving collecting used tea bags to build a life size sculpture with soundscape from recorded discussions around ideas of home, displacement and the journey and several 3-d pieces using found organic elements to present specific references to the degradation of the oceanic environment. 

The sea is the central theme that I am working with and being in Cornwall has provided endless fodder for creativity. 

smhumston@gmail.com