Fiona Long Art

This is my part of the WAM show I was involved with at the crypt gallery under St Pancras Church in London October 2009

My end of second year show: Post Consumer Material Culture. In my imagined post apocalyptic scenario "After Day X" the resulting population will find objects from our time and wonder what to make of and from them. But what will this archaeology of the future tell us about our civilisation today? Along with our human drive to explore the past and present through collecting and assembling objects, there is another just beyond survival drive to paint. Possibly this is a means to explore and understand the objects further, or were the objects made in response to the paintings? The paints are made with earth pigments which could be sourced "After Day X". Some of the paintings explore the objects and then some purely explore the materiality o the paint therefore creating a loop between object, painting and material. The whole collection is then displayed in 'misunderstood' furniture like drawers attached to the wall. The background paint is magnolia with a wry smile to our domestic reality today. If any paint did make it through the apocalypse, it would probably be an old warehouse full of magnolia! Looking into a possible future like this, with the future population looking back in a sense brings us back to our present to make us examine and confront our world in a different way. Now for a bit of showing off: I was thrilled to be awarded with a first at 90%. Top of the year! Woo hoo! Sorry, I'll behave myself and shut up now!

I really enjoyed being a part of the Park ‘09 exhibition of site based art works in the beautiful Cannizaro Park in Wimbledon. This year the event was curated by Sarah B Davies who selected projects from proposals by BA and MA Wimbledon School of Art students. The exhibition was a great success in spite of the pretty dicey weather. I’d considered the British weather when I came up with the idea of my piece so I not only had somewhere dry to sit whilst invigilating it, it also had a certain poetry to it. I felt that this “Umbrella Den” would be ideal for Cannizaro since it fits in with attributes of the park such as dens, tunnels and shelter. The suburban park relates very closely to the umbrella since both are part practical, part ornamental. One is unlikely to spot either a rose garden or someone sporting an umbrella in the wilderness. In the park, or under an umbrella, events take place which can be semi-obscured: a lover’s kiss, a conversation, family bonding. I also intended a wry nod to the sea of umbrellas at Wimbledon tennis. In my studio work, I have been looking at how objects are used and reused; their functionality redefined. I would enjoyed the opportunity to explore this theme within the larger arena of the park and observe how the public negotiate these visual questions. I am intrigued by the relationship between man and nature and their constant interplay so this work embodies this. The man-made umbrella used as shelter is blown inside out and broken by nature’s elements then redefined in a suburban setting amidst trees as a structure using both natural and man made elements. A shelter made from smaller umbrella shelters beneath the larger trees which also act as shelter. It was a great challenge having my work shown in the public arena but many negotiations and health and safety forms later, it was so rewarding to see people reacting to and interacting with it. I learnt alot from talking to visitors to the exhibition and the park and listening to their comments. I’m so grateful for the wonderful opportunity. I think next year, I’ll do something about health and safety! Thank you to the people at Cannizaro Park and Merton Council for letting us do it, Wimbledon College of Art, Sarah B Davies for all the hard curation work, Anne Parkes, Anna Steeden, Sophia Vincent for all their help and all the other artists who participated and helped. It was a great event and a huge success. fionalongart.co.uk/

What could the archaeology of the future tell us about our civilisation today? With our world in such a state of delicate balance, and the way that history repeats itself and civilisations rise and fall, I imagine that our population could become significantly smaller and much more primitive due to some sort of apocalyptic event. What would this population of the future make of and from the objects that are contemporary to us today? Would everyday objects take on a magical significance?