Tuesday 24 April 2012

Artist statement and press reviews


I graduated with a degree in Fine Art Sculpture from Central Saint Martins School of Fine Art , London.
My main body of work focused on birth, loss and the taboo of child death. I believe my work is not macabre, but celebrates Motherhood and the sacred rites of passage.
My work has been widely exhibited and references have been made:

Exhibition at the Barbican , London

"The London Group host their 1995 Biennal at the The Barbican with founding artists Epstein, Frink, Hockney, Paula Rego, Philipa Beale...the group now seeks in this new exhibition to incorporate what is most interesting in younger artists working in both traditional and alternative media and methods...Amy Goodrich's 'Prambirdy' - a clear perspex sculpture with etched poetry and exposed electrical lighting evokes emotions of loss and religious significance." 

Monica Petzel for the Evening Standard




Angels and Mechanics:  National touring exhibition, venues included Riverside Studios, London






"If we accept that the origins of art lie in ancient rituals and folk-culture artefacts, then fertility must be one of its oldest themes...since this is art not the science museum, materials are often pressed in metaphor and the pieces are sometimes achingly personal. Amy Goodrich's Exomphalos III (after the foetus condition that terminated her pregnancy) is a blue glass pram glowing with florescent light:clear-eyed and precise, yet deeply moving."
Time Out 

"Since the termination of her baby because of exomphalos, Amy Goodrich's work has centred around this loss. It can be seen at a touring exhibition called Angels and Mechanics, in which forty contemporary artists explore the theme of fertility"
The Lancet

"Exomphalos III - one of the exhibits from Angels and Mechanics, an exhibition that deals with every sphere of childbirth...artists will hold a talk for health workers."
Nursing Times

"Forty artists have exercised their fecund imaginations in an exhibition that deals with every sphere of childbirth...pictured here, Exomphalos III by Amy Goodrich" 
The Independant

Click here for Slide show of my abstract Fine Art work

I like to think of my abstract work as thought-provoking - a vessel for the female voice, which can often be misrepresented. I want to show the power, the passion and the pain in the whole reproductive process. I feel that I can talk about this candidly, due to my own personal experiences:

In 1994, I became pregnant with my son, Phoenix Jay. My visions of pregnancy were shattered, with the news at the 22 week ultrasound scan, that my son was severely deformed with 'Exomphalos', when the abdominal wall fails to form, and the prognosis that he would not survive birth.

This loss greatly influenced my artistic journey; I have witnessed first hand how pregnancy and Motherhood are often viewed in a sugarcoated way. I knew I had something to say, having recognized the loss in other mothers eyes - I became all too aware that the loss of a child is a universal language, often suppressed and that this was something I feel strongly about to question and explore.

The pieces of work shown in the slide show are as follows:

Exomphalos I
200cm x 110cm x 30cm
1994
This first piece illustrates the three trimesters of pregnancy - the fourth section referring to death. By utilizing visual symbols to express the qualities of each phase, the piece incorporates both extremes of the impersonal clinical aspects (as shown by the use of bottles, liquids and light) with the personal human references of the rambling text, the antiquarian micro-slides and the hand-cut edges of zinc.



Prambirdy -  Exomphalos II
50cm x 30cm x 25cm
1995
The pram with its banal quality was chosen as the intended pram had come to be an empty shell, which somehow mirrored my own body and soul - a sad injured creature alone and without use...the light reminding us that all that was and had been ...and the acceptance that we are all moving energy. My eyes became the wheels and I realized that the ascended body took on a religious significance of the Pieta.


                                                                  Flutter Box
                                                             Nightingale Sing
                                                               Electrokinder
                                                            Perpetual Petals
                                                                Prambirdy

                                                Exomphalos II               J061955


Primigravida - Exomphalos III
50cm x 30cm x 70cm
1996
She stood there derobed - an empty vessel. The gauche white skin against the emerald green sheets. All was void. Her past life seemed like a placebo; the pram, devoid of wheels, mirrors the uncertainty and redundant nature of an empty womb. Primigravida spells out the unity and ongoing bond of mother and child. The juxta-positioning of the red label, against the blue glass and the carriage, signifies their interdependency of their relationship.


Kick
22cm x 16cm x 10cm
2008
Here the first movements of life in the second trimesters are explored. A window has been created to view this segment of change. referencing sea creatures with ovum qualities, the surrealism of another entity living within another...the stranger within, captured and expressed by the cold cast wax organic textures and latex form.


Cadis-ovum
12cm x 9cm x 7cm
2008
A wasps nest with womb-like qualities, vascular rope-like construction of the cradle of fecundity. Inspirational, iridescent moonlight kiss; that drapes the coves and shores of the surrounding bays. Influencing impressions of landscape, undulating hills and fertile land - all have hidden overtones. A cocoon of emotions in respect of the beauty and power of rebirth; reminiscent of the history of the Emerald Isle. The green pigment having this significance, together with the processes of cold cast wax, layering of latex, resins and oils, creating a fragile, yet addictive object of desire.



Ovum Basket
23cm x 23cm x 12cm
2007
Lost found objects represent to me stagnant energy capsules. This antique woven sewing basket, an every day woman's appendage in bygone years, embodies the restraint and misdiagnosis of the hysterics; the brave and institutionalized women, whose lives were ruined by the lack of knowledge of medical conditions, that we now have come to understand. The melancholic blues associated with post-natal depression and child-loss are signified here, with the tones of the wicker. The cold cast wax egg has a dual purpose; in one sense appears delicious, almost fruit-like; on the other hand, analytically fresh from the anatomists's specimen jar. Lighting always represents spiritual continuum.



Profiteroles
30cm x 30cm x 20cm
2007
A copious abundance of cold cast wax eggs...an over-spillage of giant frogspawn, or a highly populated hive - ovulation in excess. Layer upon layer, molecule upon molecule, choice upon choice, modern fertility at its best and worst. Seduction of multiplicity - a human reproductive system out of control...the dichotomy of selection. The blue pigment, like a rich chocolate on a mountain of profiteroles, symbolizes the protective quality of a mother’s love - like the possessive hens pride over her clutch of eggs.



Rupture
18cm x 22cm x 10cm
2008
In essence, ectopicity explored; using wax, latex and lighting. The attractive study of the anatomist cabinet; with their flower-like organs, illustrating fissures of both love and loss. Imagery to transcending barriers about fertility - questioning the rulings we make regarding biology all the time. Faced with ever-changing boundaries of choice, our fascination with an ongoing life-cycle remains in tact.



Siamese Endoblast
15cm x 11cm x 9cm x 2
2007
The beginning of life. The flesh-like qualities of cold cast wax with latex; delicately modeled to organic proportions. Time capsules caught in a moment of suspension. Possibilities of future beings - potential within forms for everlasting hopes and memories. Like a medical image of growth at play; a blink of an eye; a still within time. These works are a three-dimensional slide of life's ectoplasm, sitting within a lighted case...the embodiment of spirit.


 Split
16cm x 10cm x 16cm
2008
Moon worshipping of the Lunar cycles; atoms splitting - nature at its most powerful, yet susceptible, to outside interference. The ritual of fertility and the spiritual aspects of the cosmic reality of transience of time. The forever evolving human condition and the acknowledgement of external unpredictable forces at play; explored using multi-wax, electrical wire and latex.



The Journey
28cm x 16cm x 10cm
2008
The juxtaposing of the natural processes of reproduction together with mans intervention in assisted pregnancies and surgical procedures. Organic in nature, combined with industrial techniques, as a further exploration between boundaries betwixt man-made and natural. The visualization of the journey taken by the transcending egg....the surface tension created and the fascination of mankind's need to control over one’s own destiny. This split-second time frame, captured in cold cast wax, latex and lighting.