Holly B.F. Warren

Creative Artwork on Brain Structure. When an atelierista and her students meet on a common theme. Celebrating creative collaboration.

Villasimius, Sardinia where my family and I spend our summer has an incredible impact on my thought patterns thus on my art. Spending 2 month here and then moving back to the mainland, in a town gives me the possibility of having two very different visions of the installation process of any of my artwork.

Sardinia: wild or just still slightly tamed where the elements, sun, wind, water and earth show their dramatic beauty. Here my artwork mingles with the elements or rather contrasts it as I very often use recycle materials like in my recent artwork. This contrast wants to draw attention on my lifelong interest in nature and the devastating effects of plastic consumerism. This is why I chose to make the meander/brain artwork float in the sea, as if drifting away, a sort of lotus flower that should make one meditate and consider the fragility of the sea and the beauty of thought. I chose the sunset, as it seems to be the time of the day, with dawn, where nature bursts with colour. Either waking up or falling asleep in a quite slumber where only sounds scan be heard and everything imagined. This is how I envisage brain activity…buzzing and in the dark.

The forest location represents the concept of meander. Walking along a path that weaves in, out and round. A primordial scene. The pine needles in their patterns on the ground remind me of the billions of possibilities that synapse have when fired and the tree trunks stand as the pillars of knowledge.

The night version or ‘Firing Neurons’ want to represent the constant activity in the brain. In addition, the ‘Alpha Mode’ the moments when we daydream and we are in our most creative phase. Children are very often in this mode, an instance in time where they are relaxed, creative and completely wrapped in their thoughts. With the projection inside the artwork, I wanted to represent brain activity with light. This has worked out ok but I would like to consider the possibility of projecting the video on a round mirror, for maximum effects.