Megan Hampton: The Skinny Showcase

Megan Hampton was born in South Africa in 1992, moving to the UK in 2005. She completed her foundation degree at Leeds College of Art in 2011 and graduated from Edinburgh College of Art with an MA Fine Art, having specialised in History of Art and Sculpture, in 2016. She has been invited to be a part of a group 'Best of Degree Shows 2016' exhibition at 6 Foot Gallery in Glasgow and her degree show has also been selected for the RSA New Contemporaries 2017 show.

"My work focuses predominantly on the interchangeability of domestic and architectural ornamentation that dominates the universal understanding of mortality in relation to objects. I play on ideas of memory by selecting details that are classical and therefore arguably perennial in style and understanding. I often create work that reflects particular ornamentation found in a specific location. Thus the forms themselves, and my recreations of them, are suggestive of symbolic elements translated from one realm to another. This is accompanied by an evocation of past experiences and potential future understandings through the work’s direct relation to the architecture and objects that surround and permeate our everyday lives.

"In addition, my work focuses on collapsing the relationship between process and material so they become one and the same. Thus my choice of materials and the processes I adopt references an understanding of classical formations and traditional processes, this is deliberately cultivated through further research and experimentation. There is always an element of unpredictability within each process or material that I use; and thus the resultant form is synonymous with the unreliability and randomness often experienced within cognitive memory.

"Often in my work there is an inherent sense of balance between absence and presence, and between fragility and rigidity. Thus a sense of anxiety as well as subtle contemplative recollection are provoked through the placement of the work, therefore questioning and suggesting both recognisable and indefinable associations that are inherent to our experience of memory.

"My work is engaged with questions of how we relate to objects, and the spaces we exist in and come into contact with. Whilst drawing on the theme of the body in relation to architecture and domestic adornment, my work also has influences ranging from classical statuary, the making process itself, and potential sensory evocations that arouse and cultivate traces similar to the processes of remembering and forgetting.  "

meganhampton.co.uk
megan@hamptons.me.uk
Twitter @MeganHamptonArt
Instagram @meganclairehampton