SARAH FORSYTH

12 STUDIO ARTS

Consciousness

The primary focuses of my artwork are dreams and the unconscious. My overarching theme this year has been ‘Consciousness’, and I explored within this these two topics and their connection to each other. In my works, I am attempting to depict progression, with each work becoming more abstract and dream-like. Additionally, the physical space each composition takes up on its panel expands as the works progress. These factors are indicative of the way in which the unconscious takes over the conscious mind gradually when falling asleep and beginning to dream.

My final works are linked together through their progression. They are a series, with one following another to tell a whole story. They mimic the process of falling asleep, with the unconscious expanding over the conscious mind. This process is seen to take place across all three. It is represented in two ways. First of all, each work becomes progressively more abstract and complex, with Artwork 1 comprising the fairly basic imagery of a face and Artwork 3 being much more speculative. Secondly, each composition takes up more space upon its panel. Artwork 1 is contained to the centre, while Artwork 3 branches out to cover almost the entire surface. This is symbolic of the aforementioned expansion of the unconscious mind when dreaming.