Drowning (Not waving) – Spike Dennis video
Spike Dennis is an artist/maker currently based in South Wales. Having originally graduated with a bachelor degree followed by a masters degree in fine art painting, Spike has allowed his practice to evolve in a multidisciplinary fashion though he still profusely uses the media of drawing and painting.
“My work is born of numerous contradictions; pixelated memories and distorted dreams are synchronous in the physical reality of the present. New autonomous entities evolve from these dissonant sources of inspiration. Multiples become important to both the fluid creative processes involved in the creation of these objects and to the stimulation of the spectator. Objects are physical, theoretical, without identity and free from a fixed definitions. They are instilled with a life of their own at once bearing reference to their source whilst also firing the spectator’s imagination and creating new meanings; new beginnings, as a result of their inimitable physical presence (…) ”
Media: Cotton, Linen
Year: 2012
The unicorn was once held up as a striking phallic symbol of masculinity and was described by Ctesias (c. 500BC) as ‘the most fell and furious beast of all’. Today however, the unicorn is more commonly associated with the effeminate pink and fluffy rainbow laden daydreams of little girls. In this way we could say that the unicorn has become transgendered.
My ‘Bound’ unicorns reflect this transformation. The embroidered creatures are imbued with large breasts and female genitalia whilst they retain their phallic potency through the large horn that protrudes from their brow.
The creatures depicted here are bound by pink thread in reference to the medieval tale that suggests that a unicorn can only be lured into captivity by a young virgin girl whilst also being suggestive of sexual bondage games.
There are seven panels in this series. Each is framed and measures 39 x 43cm. All. of the works were created with cotton thread on a linen ground
Media: Cotton, Found Objects
Year: 2013
Historically through the centuries stitch or embroidery has functioned as a source of constraint for women as well as providing a weapon of resistance. This work explores this duality through the Grimm’s tale of the 12 Dancing Princesses.
The Twelve Dancing Princesses” is a German fairy tale originally published by the Brothers Grimm in 1812 in Kinder- und Hausmärchen as tale number 133.
Embroidery has throughout the ages has promoted submission to the expected norms of feminine obedience and often evokes the stereotype of the virgin in opposition to the whore – an infantilising representation of women’s sexuality. Embroidery has become indelibly associated with stereotypes of femininity.
12 princesses, each prettier and far more beautiful than the last, sleep in twelve beds in the same room; every night their doors are securely locked, but in the morning their dancing shoes are found to be worn through as if they had been dancing all night. The king, perplexed, promises his kingdom and each daughter to any man who can discover the princesses’ midnight secret within three days and three nights, but those who fail within the set time limit will be put to death.
Several princes forfeit their lives in the attempt to uncover the secret of the twelve princesses who conspire against these men to ensure that their secret remains undiscovered.
GEORGINA LOUISE - FINE ART 