Open Frequency
Open Frequency is a curated online programme presenting new developments in contemporary art. Selected artists are nominated by key curators, writers and artists from across the UK. Recently profiled Scotland-based artists include Katy Dove, Joanne Tatham and Tom O’Sullivan, Camilla Low, Toby Paterson and Hayley Tompkins.
Open Frequency is a programme area of Axis, the arts council funded leading online resource for the contemporary art community.
Dawn Youll creates vignettes in ceramic exploring themes of urban ubiquity. She observes the rituals of everyday life, of how mundane objects become unconsciously immersed in these rituals, and their significance to the observer.
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She gathers glimpses of the urban environment and literally 'lays them on the table', investigating how we view and interact with our surroundings by recording these moments in clay. |
Subjects seen but rarely closely observed are depicted in slip cast ceramic, a process that lends itself to the production of multiples, and a material which signifies ornamentation and often commemoration. In 'Pigeons and Accessories' grey city pigeons rummage amongst their cigarette butt 'accessories', whilst the magpies in 'Perched Pair' face the wall unwilling to entertain or acknowledge the viewer - a recasting, perhaps, of the ceramic animal figurine.
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Youll is curious about the habitual need to collect, organise and display - in the how and why we choose to represent the world outside, inside. Historically, ceramic forms have been associated with the private domain of domesticity where objects are collected for their sentimental value, or to represent an elsewhere within the confines of home. Through ornamentation, Youll states, ceramic forms 'can evoke feelings of sentimentality and its function as a representation of a subject can change. I am interested in this shift, when things become so familiar they take on other meanings'. |
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Sorcha Dallas writes, 'Earlier projects have included Youll approaching passers by, taking their photos and then meticulously modelling them in marble white earthenware.
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These 'everyman' subjects are transformed into majestic miniatures of classical sculpture, with the everyday being elevated to objects of note. |
The decision to resolve them in white has not only classical connotations but strips the figures of any class distinction, with their personal histories only suggested through the choice of titles: 'Pensioner in a Charity Shop'; 'People Waiting' (a bus queue); 'Saturday Girl'; 'Boys at Patrick Cross' (a group of 'neds' hanging out).'
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Youll's recent work sees her moving away from the figure into utilising birds. Again she focuses on the everyday, pigeons and magpies are her choice as opposed to the more obvious classical option of the exotic. |
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Youll creates something beautiful from creatures normally associated with being dirty or verminous. She lovingly paints them and meticulously creates 'accessories' for them through casting street detritus such as cigarettes butts and plastic bands'.
Biography
Dawn Youll studied BA (Hons) Design: Ceramics at Glasgow School of Art followed by a Scottish Screen Training Scheme in scenic plastering (2000-2002). Her exhibitions include Value Judgements (Northern Lights Contemporary Craft Exhibition, Cleveland, Liverpool and Sheffield, 2000), Sleepers (Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro, 2002), New Souvenirs (Urban Outfitters, Glasgow, 2003), Velvet Boutique (Design Fair, Edinburgh, 2004), Le Village (Festival of Scottish Art, Bazouges-le-Perouse, 2004), Ceramic Art London (Royal College of Art, London, 2005), The Clamour of Ornament (in association with Glasgow International, 2006) and most recently Breakers (PM Gallery, London, 2006).
Upcoming exhibitions include a show at Washington Garcia, Glasgow in June and Wunderkammer: A Cabinet of Curiosities for the Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool (28 July - 25 August).
Dawn lives and works in Glasgow. | |