Mixed media are used to assess the role of women in Cyprus society at an exhibition opening in Paphos tomorrow
WHEN your mother is a nursery school teacher and your father is into maths and computers, becoming an artist doesn’t seem like the obvious career choice. With Amanda Louise Harker, however, this was just the case. There was never a doubt in her mind that she would do anything else than ‘grow up to be an artist’. From the age of five it has been something that she has followed with a passion. Harker is currently taking her Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art at the Cyprus College of Art in Lempa and is exhibiting a series of mixed media works under the subject of women in Cyprus.
In addition to creating her own works, Harker has studied fine art. In Derby, England she studied Art and Design and passed the course with distinction. She then went on to take a bachelors degree in Fine Art at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, England. She has worked alongside Kim Graham, an Arts & Cultural Strategy Officer with the Preston City Council, as part of the Millennium Volunteers’ scheme in organising public art works across Lancashire and done volunteer work with Jane Bevan, an exhibitions co-ordinator at the Q Art Gallery in Derby, where she assisted in producing exhibitions in a gallery space. Also in the field of art, she has worked as a life-model for artists at Cyprus College of Art.
When it comes to exhibiting her own art works, Harker has exhibited in several different countries, including England, at the GNVQ Show at the Chellaston School of Derby, a degree show, also in England, in Circulo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, at the En Plo Gallery here in Cyprus, and, of course, at the Cyprus College of Art. All her works in these exhibitions were mixed media works, consisting of textiles, photography, paintings, sculptures, and more.
Harker’s current exhibition also features mixed media works in the form of installations, photography and drawing. Harker chose these varying art forms because she believes that with a wider variety, her art can reach a wider audience. “Glass allows the audience to physically and metaphorically look into and beyond the pieces… wooden frames on doors and windows reflect the constraints and restrictions on women in conventional situations,” she said. Also, because she does not restrict herself to one artistic expression she can use every-day objects, such as the previously mentioned doors and windows, to make people think and question their own cultures.
On her exhibition, Harker comments “this highly personal connotation will be exposed to the observer through stark contrast. Primarily the work will appear to be a study, even a celebration, of typical female Cypriot tradition, such as lace-making. Use of such a familiar folklore will lull the viewer into a false sense of security, followed by a sense of familiarity and effortless acceptance. Unexpectedly, after some consideration, shocking silhouettes of women, in sexual poses will transfuse into the foreground. These images from explicit pornographic material will be camouflaged, as they will be made up from matching negative lace shapes. Interruption in the repetitive lace patterns will urge the viewer into scrutinising every collection of shapes, searching for a reasoning or meaning. These images will be so subtle some may not even reach this level of understanding, mirroring public ignorance to such feminist issues”.
The artist’s inspiration for this exhibition came out of the shock that she experienced when she first came to Cyprus. Coming from England, Harker found that the traditions, especially when it came to the role of women, were “much further behind” than what she expected. She found that she was treated differently than in England and that there was a barrier between men and women. In addition, once she started working as a life model she began to think about “prostitution and loss of dignity”, as well as what it’s like to push boundaries and accept her “own female form”. She found that she would stay up all night thinking about expressing these ideas and this led to more late nights where she was nearly “obsessed”, as she puts it, with putting an exhibition together.
For Harker, the aim of this exhibition is to “stimulate the public into considering these (cultural) hidden agendas and the overall attitude towards women as only a lustful or domesticated item, through a mixed media of negative spaces, transparencies and contrast”.
This promising young artist plans to stay in Cyprus as long as her art continues to blossom here. She believes that Cyprus can offer her many more inspirations and thought-provoking experiences that will lead to great art works. In addition, she hopes to take her masters in art and plans to exhibit again in a solo exhibition at the college and in a group exhibition in the En Plo Gallery.
l Exploring the Role of Women. An exhibition of mixed media works by Amanda Louise Harker. March 7-13. Cyprus College of Art, Lemba, Paphos. Tel: 99 741190
