Abi Birkinshaw

BA (Hons) Fine Art


My current work is an investigation into how we cope in the face of significant absence or loss; how do we get up and get out of bed each morning and face the world when something so fundamental, so intrinsic to our lives as we have known them is gone? Underpinning this is a deep-seated fascination with the human desire to make the intangible tangible, the impermanent permanent, and the inherent futility of this.

I use the commonplace cardboard box as a metaphor for all the mementos we hold onto — toy cars, ticket stubs, photographs — for fear of forgetting. Through the act of making a dialogue is established: a conversation with both the materials and myself. By constructing objects I am able to process the things that I have lost.

Quotidian occurrences influence the work, such as the roadside detritus I pass in the car on the way to the studio and the music I listen to when I’m working. Domestic spaces, such as the attic in my family home or the space at the bottom of my wardrobe, and my working relationship with a sketchbook in the studio are also sources of inspiration.

My practice originated as a comment on the tradition of painting, questioning its relationship to sculpture, but what results is a collection of objects and drawings that serve as a monument to lost things.


Mae fy ngwaith presennol yn ymchwilio i sut i ymdopi pan fydd rhywun yn wynebu absenoldeb neu golled sylweddol; sut byddwn ni’n codi a dod allan o’r gwely bob bore a wynebu’r byd pan fydd rhywbeth a oedd mor sylfaenol, more annatod i’n bywydau fel roeddem yn eu hadnabod, wedi mynd. Yn sail i hyn i gyd mae rhyw apêl ddofn a’r awydd mewn pobl i wneud yr anniriaethol yn ddiriaethol, yr ansefydlog yn sefydlog, a’r ffaith bod gwneud hyn yn hollol ofer.

Rwyf yn defnyddio blwch cardfwrdd cyffredin yn drosiad ar gyfer yr holl gofarwyddion y byddwn yn dal gafael arnynt — ceir o deganau, bonynnau tocynnau, ffotograffau — rhag ofn i ni anghofio. Drwy weithred gwneud, caiff deialog ei sefydlu: sgwrs gyda’r deunyddiau a myfi fy hun. Drwy greu gwrthrychau, rwy’n gallu prosesu’r pethau a gollais.

Bydd digwyddiadau beunyddiol yn dylanwadu ar y gwaith, megis y malurion ar ymyl y ffordd y byddaf yn mynd heibio iddynt yn y car ar y ffordd i’r stiwdio a’r gerddoriaeth y byddaf yn gwrando arni pan fyddaf wrthi’n gweithio. Mae mannau’r cartref megis yr atig yng nghartref fy nheulu neu’r gofod ar waelod fy wardrob, a’m perthynas waith gyda llyfr braslunio yn y stiwdio yn fy ysbrydoli hefyd.

Fe ddechreuodd fy ymarfer fel sylwad ar y traddodiad o beintio, gan gwestiynu ei berthynas â cherflunio, ond yr hyn a ddeilliodd yw casgliad o wrthrychau a lluniau sy’n gallu bod yn dyst i bethau coll.

Other Exhibitors:

Caitlyn Laye

Caitlyn Laye

My artwork was initially inspired by the rave scene which is usually an intense environment of music, colour and lights. I decided to recreate the feelings that my experience evoked, with the use of illuminative acrylics and spray paints on canvas. As spray painting...

Chloe Winder

Chloe Winder

Our species has become increasingly disconnected from nature. I focus on landscapes of personal significance and/or landscapes that have been disrupted by industrial use. Materials from these sites (often rocks, muds, and bricks) are used through a process-orientated...

Rebecca Jones

Rebecca Jones

Non-linear narratives such as unreliable memories, leaky dreams and deja vu are a central reference within my practice. I address the structure of these forms of narrative using repetition, replication and iterations of time. My work is largely sculptural, using...

Rachel Verner

Rachel Verner

Exploring the fragmentation of memory through the physicality of found objects and the spoken word, my work has become an archive of my family history. Due to the archival nature of my work, I replicate ways of preserving my objects through the attentiveness of their...

India Beaudro

India Beaudro

In my current practice I am concerned with the objectivity and phenomenology of colour. Through using media such as light and coloured acetate, my present work is intentionally focused and uncluttered, allowing colour to be considered as a singularity without any...

Katie Berry

Katie Berry

With a love for colour my work addresses form and shape and the impact this has on a space. I am demonstrating how the use of bright colour can create maximum optical impact. I’m interested in pattern and repetition to create a visual aesthetic whilst whilst working...