Visiting Artist. Caroline Achaintre.

Caroline Achaintre

Thursday 14th November 2013

Caroline Achaintre, Zibra (left), 2011,

 Installation view, Arcade(London), Handtufted wool, 240 x 165 cm

On Thursday 14^th November we had a visiting artist from German Caroline Achaintre, her early work includes installations but when she graduated from Goldsmiths with an MA her work had changed. Her work consist of a mixture of control and accidents, she started off small but when enlarging she found her work lost intensity. From her 2D work she transformed them into 3D using media such as carpet as she found it had a strong relief, presented on the wall to give imagery and be distorted. She looked into clowns as she wanted to capture the dark side and the connection with monster, expression. Recently she has been researching masks and began to work with simple lino cuts before moving onto making paper sculptors but found paper flimsy. She then decided to move into ceramics as it is stronger and leather as it shows a fetch. Her work is abstract and figuration. She found that ceramics is hard to display so she pushes the exhibition space, her work can be group or be individual.

Caroline Achaintre, Africana,

2007, Linoprint, 38 x 30 cm

I find her work simplistic to a degree that you are looking for more than what is given. The lack of colour she gives her sculpture pieces makes them dark and twisted, scary, something out of a child’s nightmare. However what see is trying to show comes across either with African masks or monster but they may be slightly distorted making your imagination create the real vibe or horror. What interested me were the materials that she uses, her ceramic work is minimal yet her fabric work has plenty of detail and technique, they are also similar yet different materials, they are both strong but one is rough and the other smooth.  

Caroline Achaintre,Tie Man, 2012, 

Ceramic, leather tie, 97 x 27 x 4 cm