Hayden Murray
The main theme I wanted to explore within my work was the absence of core childhood memories. Having spent most of my life moving from place to place and never having somewhere I could always call home, I felt an extremely personal engagement to this theme and an interest in defining these ideas in an artistic medium.
Throughout my IB course, I explored several mediums inspired by the artists I researched such as clay sculpting, monoprinting, etching and photography. However, in the end I decided to return to my passion for pencil sketching. I consider myself to be capable within the pencil medium and I wanted to challenge myself in the intricacy of my work through effectively conveying natural and manmade textures. As my work emerged, I began following a theme of interconnection between wires and electricity poles, representing the process of looking back.
However, I wanted to elevate my work in some way to three dimensions. I used cardboard to create my models and I think that using a rough material commonly used in primary school projects, but utilised in far more complex ways, helps in further communicating the idea of looking back at childhood. My aim was to create this small-scale‘ street’ joining my drawings with the cardboard models.
Much of my work is based on holidays visiting family in Korea. The feelings I get when spending time with my cousins, walking home in the rain during typhoon season and late-night adventures around Seoul, and the desire to have had these feelings when I was younger, are themes I aimed to pour into my artwork.