Nicole Wermers
Wermers is a contemporary artist of Turner Prize notariety. She works with the appropriation of materials, some natural but often with examples of consumer culture. These refigured familiar objects can be juxtaposed to create new material forms. Wermer regards urban environments as having significant psychological, socioeconomic and cultural impact by inadvertently directing positive and negative effects. Her work references art history within the design and aesthetic of modern daily life, often its precarious or awkward status regarding its value in the eyes of the beholder.
This understanding of an unintentional adverse environment created by man and its seemingly inconsequential consideration seems to anger Wermers and is seen as an injustice needing raised; we are losing control of our complex personal development and direction subliminally in our new unnatural environment.
‘Untitled Ashtray (Shells)’, 2018
‘Untitled Ashtray(Shells)’, 2018 personally had an initial association with collection and orderly presentation. However, when reviewed further, this tiered perspective of natural degradation, shells to sand, is also a interface of societal vice and pollution. This piece also talks of our incessant ordering of nature for small gains to the overall detriment of our environment and in turn ourselves.
Bonakdar Exhibition 2020 was called ‘ The Return of the Real’, because of its relative timing to experiencing art in real-time with regard to the Covid Pandemic and the real time problems we have created. Sometimes a message is best received when delivered with brutal honesty and avoids ambiguity. This has clear application at times to my personal practice in both subject delivery and titling.
Fleeting temporary observations of claimancy of private space in public space is led by putting a jacket on the back of a chair. This association was exemplified further by inlaying the backrest of the chair within the coat, now stitched it becomes a permanent state. The status of an object can then change.
Wermers encourages personal interpretation of her works as they’re meaning is not easily accessible without research. My personal interpretation of ‘Untitled Stack’ 2020 sat between ideas of human support and protection in numbers. These are matters that I would aim to address and consider in my future works.
‘Untitled Stack’, 2020
‘Untitled Chairs’ , 2014-2015