RHIAN GRIMER

rhian grimer

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Born and raised in the West Sussex countryside, I have always been a self-contained creative. Despite a loving, supportive environment, death has been a constant part of my life from a young age. Mental and physical ill-health have been reoccurring, prominent features of my surroundings and have influenced my personal outlook, psyche and therefore my artistic practice. In this way, my work is driven by personal experience. Trauma and the methods in which we as human beings deal with it have been a key focus of my art. Using paint, print, collage and other more unconventional materials such as ash, hair and foam, my work is often multimedia, multidisciplinary and regularly text-based; utilising dark humour and contradictory language alongside childish imagery as reoccurring motifs throughout my practice. By combining different materials, my work attempts to reference the different components and experiences that carve us as individuals and act as a means of understanding and exploring human behaviour. From simple line-work illustrations or writings to interactive installations, my work spans from the pictorial to the conceptual and attempts to connect simple imagery with more complex ideas.

Utilising first and second-hand experience of trauma and ill-health, I attempt to create work that is representative of human existence by removing the distance between the art and its audience. To achieve this, I create work that not only depicts but also experiences trauma, either during the making process or whilst exhibiting the piece. I often display my work on the floor with the intention of being walked over, trodden on or interacted with by the audience. Through repeated interaction, the works are able to reflect the small traumas individuals experience every day and remove the superiority an artwork usually holds over its audience.

This concept of preservation and the authority surrounding a work of art is questioned within my practice. As my practice’s fundamental concepts focus largely on the pieces having an end point, my work is able to achieve an anthropomorphic quality through its experience of pain and the inevitability of its demise. In light of this, my work attempts to create a safe and thought-provoking environment in which the damaging effects of traumatic experiences can be explored in a positive, playful manner. Varying forms of trauma are explored in my practice; early childhood trauma, traumatic grief and post-traumatic stress are discussed alongside the coping mechanisms (both adaptive and maladaptive) used by individuals to overcome life-changing experiences. With suicide being the biggest killer of under 30s in the UK, it is clear that individuals are struggling to facilitate adequate coping mechanisms for the traumas of everyday existence. The purpose of my work is to aid the development of positive strategies and experiences that highlight a more accepting, alternative means of addressing and dealing with trauma.

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