Artist statement for end of year exhibition 24: "I am part of all I have met: BM1, BM2, BM3, BM4"

'I am part of all I have met: BM1, BM2, BM3, BM4'

Bethan Hemus, 2024

This installation explores how and what we nurture. As a mother, this is a literal conversation for me. And it is a metaphorical conversation for most, in an Era where technology evolves and populates our society at an unprecedented rate.

I created the images of children that fill the space using AI. The topics of AI and childhood are twinned in this work because they are similarly emergent in nature. The direction each walks is inevitably influenced by their environment and by human interaction. 

The associations that we have with fabric being close to the body and sensory lends it well to discussions about the human condition. The textile pieces in this work reference individual and collective wound and repair. The cloth has been worked heavily and embellished with human hair. It's energy is paradoxical; it feels warm and intimate but at the same time lifeless and revolting.

The use of Baker-Miller pink throughout amplifies the paradoxical nature of the installation; referencing both innocence and violence. This complicated tone bounces around the installation and is an invitation to consider the duality of the subjects presented.