Tag: Deidhre Wauchop Artist

The embroiderer

Henry Passmore Needlework picture of Fremantle Harbour 1890s (Collection of Western Australian Museum)

According to family records, Henry Passmore was my great-great-grandfather. He was the son of a lacemaker (England), a Crimean war veteran, a prison supervisor, a dredger, and a public servant. He also served on the North Fremantle Council. 

Importantly to me, he was also a designer. In DESIGN AND ART AUSTRALIA ONLINE he is listed as Designer (Textile Artist / Fashion Designer) and Artist (Carver).

He made embroideries, wood carvings and carved and upholstered furniture.

According to Sarah Murphy, Director of Conservation, National Trust of Western Australia writing about one of Passmore’s carved sideboards in 2015:

Once a year his [Henry Passmore’s] furniture was displayed in Sandovers’ shop window in Perth with a sign “Henry Passmore’s Suite”. Passmore’s work featured at international exhibitions such as the Indian and Colonial Exhibition in London in 1886 at which he won a medal.
Carved iconography abounds including cornucopia, roses, thistles, acorns, grapes and swans. A pair of kangaroos hold rifles in one paw and a flag over their opposite shoulder. This quirky piece of furniture is housed in the Trust’s offices in the Old Observatory, West Perth.

National trust WA news 2015

There is a complex set of influences on my work, but I am often drawn to design, and crossing the bridge backwards and forwards between ‘art’ and ‘craft’. My current work could be described as maximalist so Passmore’s ‘cornucopia’ is very appealing.

Traces of Henry Passmore’s genes might have more sway than I ever imagined.

AI curation

Just as CEOs of AI companies are warning that AI may bring about the end of humanity, I’m contemplating my role in generating AI-based works.

So many AI issues still to deal with! Putting aside the existential risk to humanity for a brief moment, today I’m attending to some of the positives for my artistic practice in the use of AI.

For reference the digital collage work below, Spoons for them 2023, has been made with the help of AI.

Spoons for them 2023

The role of the artist as curator

It occurred to me that, in the generation of AI images, I am an artist acting as curator. I’m assembling and displaying images, giving them context and meaning. It’s creative, hence the curatorial mode of practice becomes part of my creative process.

There is a familiarity here with other aspects of my practice. In my digital collages I work with multiple images, actions, patterns, marks and blends that are digitally generated and/or manipulated. I use digital tools and I make choices about the use of these tools and techniques which help develop the meaning or narrative in the work.

Much of the AI work I’m doing at the moment involves using my own work as a starting point, curating a series of prompts, curating outputs and then feeding back to the Bot in a lengthy loop of generation.

The images in Spoons for them 2023 come from a complex set of prompts, potentially no two alike. I have collected and catalogued many more generated images of spoons, and the ones selected above fit the concept and intention of the work.

Curating an exhibition of AI work

The blurring of curatorial and creative practice in this space lends itself to exhibition. I can see a future where Bot and I exhbit our work. The creative intention is mine as Curator, the execution is primarily Bot’s as Lead Fabricator, and the Artist attribution exists conceptually—and shared by both of us.