School of Fine Art Sculpture & Environmental Art
Holly Allan
Working primarily with ceramic, fabric, metal, wood and text, I am a Glaswegian visual artist exploring the glitchy thresholds of the spiritual, physical and digital and their journey from skin to screen. My work is an investigation into homogenised modern space, and the subsequent death of ornamentation. I explore the extravagance of the spiritual gaze through faux ritualistic objects and amalgamated and warped iconography, and am interested in merging the mundane and the ornate. Focusing on the exploitation of beauty and sensuality by referencing historical fabrication, I paradoxically work to create an absence of maker, producing sculptures which seem extracted from a parallel world or alternative timeline.
Portal 02
screen printed linen, tassels, wood
Portal 2.0 serves as a transcendental artifact, blurring the boundaries between the tangible and the ethereal, the mundane and the mystical. This textile-based installation, meticulously crafted from linen and adorned with crimson tassels, is elegantly draped over a branch and suspended in a state of suspended animation. It functions as a liminal threshold, a symbolic gateway that beckons viewers to transcend the confines of conventional reality and venture into the boundless realms of imagination and introspection.
Drawing inspiration from ritualistic and ceremonial aesthetics, Portal 2.0 exudes an aura of quasi-religious reverence, while simultaneously subverting traditional notions of sacred space and ritualistic practice. Its trompe l’oeil presentation—both literal and metaphorical—invites contemplation on the fluidity of space and time, challenging viewers to reevaluate their perceptions of presence, absence, and the interstitial spaces that connect them.
As part of an ongoing series of enigmatic objects seemingly plucked from alternate dimensions, Portal 2.0 occupies a unique ontological status, existing both within and outside the realm of conventional artistic categorization. Its suspended state serves as a poignant metaphor for the transience and impermanence of existence, encouraging viewers to engage with it as a catalyst for personal reflection, transformation, and transcendence.
Spirit Fruits, Spirit Flowers
screen printed ceramic tiles with stainless steel frame
With this faux x-ray effect, the series provokes an exploration into the dual desires of revelation and obscurity and the tension of intimacy. The x-ray image possesses an ethereal glow which transcends mere science and tech, and encompasses a spiritual, mysterious atmosphere. These images feature a reflective, lasercut acrylic surface which is able to project back a positive image of the main negative. Through this interplay of transparency and reflection, the images reflect the complexities of self-representation and the ever-shifting boundaries between the seen and the unseen, the physical and the spiritual.
4000 ways to talk to god
wood, mesh, aluminium
Exploring the glitchy thresholds of the spiritual, physical and digital and their journey from skin to screen, 4000 ways to talk to god is a mesh room divider portraying the tensions between display and concealment, mimicking the desire to be seen and the contradicting need for secrecy
The piece merges time and physcial/digital space with the blending and distorting of imagery from 1644 and scanned images of my own hands – these images have been scanned, distorted and layered repeatedly, at times creating a kind of fleshy mystery, sitting in an uncanny space between alien matter, recognisable body and pixellated history.
Hands grasping, seeking, connecting and contorting represent our fraught and removed relationship with the spiritual, these relic images have travelled through cyberspace becoming increasingly warped and pixellated whilst the material connotes a fluidity, a permeability but also a contradiction; something which is at the same time masking and exposing, subverting its primary function.
Choreography of sin and punishment
melted CD’s, stainless steel
My overarching degree show theme is the act of unveiling; exploring the tension between the need for concealment and the contradicting desire to be seen. I aimed to capture Sassoferrato’s The Virgin in Prayer through a pixelated lens, envisioning an imitation stained glass rendition that juxtaposes abstract spirituality with the precise, digital, mathematical unit of measurement — the pixel.
The fusion of the CD, a symbol of modern digital technology, with the timeless imagery of Sassoferrato’s 1640 painting creates a rich tapestry where disparate elements meld into a cultural and metaphysical amalgam, The use of CD’s as a stand in for stain glass comments on the death of ornamentation in an increasingly fast paced world. This cheap, plastic imitation of a grand medium and a grand image speaks to the new world where value is tied up in units of data and information.
Casket
wood, aluminium, tasseling
Casket explores the tantalizing allure of the concealed, and the inherent excitement in embracing the unknown. Drawing from the allure of ritual and ceremony, The box like objects serves as enigmatic vessel, harboring an imagined, concealed space within — evocative of the mythical Pandora’s box.
Unattainable
ceramic tiles, wood
The robust and imposing nature of the work speaks to the weight of the struggles and pressures of the housing market. This has become even more pertinent with the recent cost of living increase. Just as many hopefuls thought they had a nest egg saved up, we have been catapulted into a new state of financial insecurity. The objects unattainability comes from its highly polished finish.
The glossy surface is uninviting, the high shine a constant reminder that ones fingerprints will leave smudges traces of foreign contact. Sharp and linear, its simple geometry and symmetry create a sense of perfection; it is to be looked at. but not touched and certainly not possessed. All aesthetics remind us that it is an autonomous object.
Excess For All
wood, ceramic, gold leaf
Excess For All is a faux altarpiece, exploring the decline of valuable and adorned public space. It represents a universal spirituality, not tied to anyone specific sect or doctrine, exploring how symbol and iconography can permeate many belief systems.
It draws attention to the lack of secular, public spaces given the same care and attention that religious architecture receives. If we are not privy to sites of spirituality, what access do we have to ornamentation?
Although birthed from quasi religious origins, the piece is rooted in the socio-political landscape, taking inspiration from a 1911 suffragette speech declaring our right to both ‘bread and roses’; to have both necessities and luxuries. Along with Bastani’s ideology of ‘Fully Automated Luxury Communism’ this fuelled the text work which is engraved and gilded into a handmade birchwood archway.
