Featured Member - Annabel Elgar
www.annabelelgar.com
www.pelime.com/annabelelgar
Annabel Elgar is a photographic based artist who lives and works in London. She has an MA in Photography from the Royal College of Art and her work has featured in numerous international exhibitions and publications throughout Europe and North America. Her work has recently been shown in Theatres of the Real at the FotoMuseum Antwerp (accompanied by a book published by Photoworks) and in the book and exhibition New Photography in Britain at the Galleria Civica di Modena, Italy. She has had two solo shows at the Wapping Project, London and has also exhibited at, amongst others, Kunsthalle Lophem, Loppem, Belgium, Zephyr Centre for Photography, Mannheim, Germany, Sweet Briar College, Virginia, USA, New Art Gallery Walsall, Galerie Polaris, Paris, the Museum of New Art, Detroit, USA, Error One, Antwerp, Belgium and she has collaborated with the House of Fairy Tales on a number of projects.
Annabel Elgar is represented by the Wapping Project Bankside and has recently had a solo show at the gallery.
Q. Your work is punctuated with very striking visuals, such as a fire and an empty pulpit. Where do you draw your ideas from?
A. My work comes from a variety of different sources but my imagination is often captured on specific news stories and histories that tug on ideas of ritualistic behaviour and strange codes of practice.
Q. There is recurring imagery in your work, such as crows, woodland, balloons and burning objects. What is that interests you about these things?
A. I guess that a lot of these references come from where I grew up and the landscape I experienced as a child.
Q. Your work seems to be very carefully arranged. Is this a conscious decision on your part?
A. The process of making my work is very detailed. I often start with a blank space and gradually add things to it over a period of weeks or months. I also make props, costumes and puppets that help shape the narratives.
Q. Do you have a particular objective or idea in mind when you embark on a project or is it more of an instinctive process?
A. I normally have a definite set of ideas as I start working, often starting off by writing short stories. Occasionally I will add small elements or details during the shoot.
Q. You took a series of shots depicting little felt figures that seem to be dressed up in Ku Klax Klan hoods. Can you tell us more about this?
A. This piece of work was actually a small sculpture for a show with the House of Fairy Tales. The figures’ costumes were actually based on various iconography, from the Santa Semena processions in Northern Spain and also the KKK. I liked the juxtaposition of something seemingly childlike and naïve, the felt and pipecleaner bodies, contrasted with the chilling association of the hoods.
Q. What sort of equipment do you work with?
A. I work with an old 5 x 4 field camera which is easy to transport.
Q. Can you tell us about your work with the House of Fairy Tales?
A. I first showed with the House of Fairy Tales, a charity and a collective, that encourages imagination in children, at a group show in the East Room, London. Since then I have made several sculptures and photographs which have been shown in various spaces in London, Cornwall, Salisbury and Walsall.
Q. Which project are you most proud of and why?
A. Probably the current and ongoing body of work, Refuge, as I feel that I am involved more comprehensively in every aspect of what I bring in and make for the photographs. Because they are mainly made up of interiors, they allow me to focus more acutely on specific aspects of the backdrops.
Q. Which project has proven the most difficult and why?
A. At the same time this body of work has also proven to be the most difficult. Months on end making puppets or costumes can be quite hard!
Q. What do you hope to achieve in 2011?
A. I hope to develop these projects and to push myself. I am always on the hunt for new locations for my work, so hopefully I’ll find a few good ones!
Q. How do you hope Pelime can help with this?
A. Hopefully creating new opportunities and contacts.
