Alice Chandler: The Skinny Showcase

Alice Chandler was born in Leeds in 1993. She completed her foundation degree at Leeds College of Art in 2012 and graduated from Edinburgh College of Art with a BA Sculpture in 2015. She has just been part of a group show at Hotel Elephant, in Southwark, London and her degree show has also been selected for the RSA New Contemporaries 2016 show. She is one of four graduate artists showing in The Skinny Showcase exhibition in Hill St Design House, part of Edinburgh Art Festival. 

"My work focuses on the way in which many, predominantly domestic, objects are instantly recognisable. By changing features such as colour, scale and material, I subvert these familiar characteristics and allow them to become full of implied innuendo, and loaded with uncanny connotations.

"Through research into material culture theory, I have developed an understanding of the way domestic objects are often taken for granted, only functioning in creating an exterior environment for us to inhabit. It is this background environment that helps to shape and define who we are as people, as it quietly comments on the nature of the society and culture that it comes from. When an object becomes removed from this background context, it begins to transform, becoming animated and fixed with personal meaning and associations.

"My work uses this as a way to reveal the potential hidden lives of inanimate objects, and contests the conventional layout or placement of the domestic setting. Through displacing the objects from their conventional context, I create things that are at once both functional and sculptural, with a hint of the absurd. Through careful selections of colour, material and placement, I also explore the flirtatious, seductive way that these seemingly banal products are often sold. The tactility, texture and colour of my materials, coupled with the use of a bold linearity, gives the work a drawn quality, and I consider my work to be a form of three dimensional drawing.

"In all, the work is accessible and fun in its nature, and I’m interested in creating undertones of humour. By using traditional sculptural mechanisms of placement and materiality, I elevate humble everyday objects and materials and tap into our natural object associations. This allows the audience to reconsider their own possessions, whilst subtly commenting on the quotidian rituals of domestic culture."