Julie Cockburn

Julie Cockburn
Mindfulness 2, 2017

Altered found photograph
24.1 cm x 19.1 cm

Courtesy the artist and Flowers Gallery

British artist Julie Cockburn takes everyday, familiar and unremarkable items and, through intervention, manipulation and embellishment, transforms them into objects of value and interest. She often works with found items where, inspired by the physicality, the space, the patina or the texture of the material, she explores ways in which she can add to or disrupt the perception of them. 
 She might cast a plastic, mass produced object in bronze, or carefully embroider a dog-eared and stained photograph, or cut up and reassemble an old painting; and through her exquisite and delicate craftsmanship she elevates and celebrates that which otherwise might have been deemed worthless. The painting, cutting, sculpting and embroidery are all undertaken by hand, which she explains: “In a world where machines can do everything, I think there is a place for this.”
 Mindfulness 2 – a hand cut collage of a found photograph - is from Cockburn’s Kaleidoscopes series. She has sliced the man’s portrait into tiny, geometric pieces and then reassembled the parts with only his eyes returned to their correct place, where they stare out so evenly and directly from the maelstrom that surrounds him.    
 
For more information flowersgallery.com

Hedge issue 52, pp78-83, November 2018