Aylwin Greenwood-Lambert

Artist statement

As Homo Faber we exist through objects, our actions and experiences mediated by them; they are no longer mere tools but extensions of ourselves. My practice is built around an investigation of the objects that surround us where I consider them in terms of being comprised of a network elements both physical (essential and accidental) and abstract (eg function, types of meaning) and attempt understand the nature of these elements, their manner of coexistence and relationship with such things as aesthetics, creativity and art.

The objects that are produced within my investigation are born out of an attempt to understand and accentuate connections between certain elements through interacting altered, displayed, represented and utilised in ways that accentuate certain elements and relationships within them whilst minimising unwanted associations.

Generally I being with an object within which I perceive a certain relationship as being more pronounced than it would be usually, I then apply an intuitive logic in deciding how to tackle that object in order to simultaneously understand and accentuate this relationship.  It is important that the objects I work with are always treated as the things they are rather than as signs which can be used to represent something (although it should be noted that occasionally the initial objects may themselves be designed to function as signs) and often the manner in which they are treated is as important as the appearance of the final object which is dictated by the interactions made with the object rather than vice versa. Where visual language is employed it is used to draw attention to an already existing aspect or else counter an unnecessary distraction.

I try to make the actions performed as visible as possible in order to allow an audience aware of them – I do not want to conceal anything with mysterious techniques. The crafting of objects is kept to a minimum in favour of assembling pre-existing components, this both allows the viewer the option to recreate an object in order to further understand it if they so wish whilst keeping unnecessary decisions to a minimum, thus limiting the possibility of producing objects unwittingly function as a medium for subjective communication. This is important as the finished objects are not intended to be containers of art nor displays of visual rhetoric, rather they are intended as meta-things which aim to deconstruct how we relate to objects on a cerebral level.