Degree Show

Work Mentioned in The Scotsman

"Several students are concerned with the female body: Katy Meehan’s thoughtful film and photographs explore female identity through associations with water"

Do come along the DJCAD to see Dundee's brightest new talents, 19th - 26th May.

Here is the link for the full article :-

http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/scotland/visual-art-review-duncan-of-jordanstone-college-of-art-design-1-2298533

Exhibition at Roseangle Dundee

Layla Cowan's first artists exhibition at Roseangle was a great success. This was my first experience of putting together a show and curating.  As a team we made flyers, created an email account and did all the hanging for the event. Three peices sold that week and we had a turnout of about 200 people. It was great night.

I put in two lithography prints from my third year work on Veiling. I sold the larger piece two weeks later.

Bathroom Series

This series came about from two sources. One was a photograph by Francesca Woodman simply titled Bath. Its calm and beautiful while at the same time has a sense of unease. The bath can be read like the safe warm waters of the womb, or as a container much like a coffin. This duality interested me. The other source was my fascination with water and myths about mermaids. Mermaids are split creatures, one moment they are beautiful and alluring, the next they are dangerous and deceptive. 

I was also thinking about the amount of time spent in a bathroom, the processes that go on there, the beautification, the mastery of such skills. The word 'Glamour' means to disguise, or appear. Appearance or rather fixation on appearance has played a big part in my work. Mermaids typify the value we place on appearance. Yet they are mysterious, who knows what they get up to and where they go. The tricks that take place in the bathroom are far less mysterious, they are down right laborious and boring.

It occurred to me, what if a mysterious and vicious mermaid was plucked from her mythical realm and plopped in to an everyday urban bathroom. How would she feel?  

A Red Day - Tell Me

'A Red Day' performed at Fun-A-Day Dundee

On Friday the 24th of February I had the pleasure of performing with some fellow artists in a piece I titled A Red Day. The inspiration for the piece came from the fairytale the Red Shoes. I was particularly interested in the idea of woman's desire as being so powerful it is all consuming. The first performer applies some red lipstick and she cannot stop the dirty words spilling out her mouth, the second is drawn to a set of red gloves that end up squeezing and pulling at her hair and body, the third seems trapped in a nightmare as her feet just keep tapping away in sparkling red shoes. All the while a violin is played to highlight their experiences.

 It was showcased at Dundee's first ever Fun-A-Day exhibition and was a great experience. Our audience were caught between discomfort and laughter, exactly what I had hoped for. It was a short performance which I then picked my favourite elements of and morphed in to a film called Tell Me.

I kept the motif of the red lipstick and the word spilling but this time it was four different women wearing red and speaking their minds. It is not completely clear what each individual is talking about but the subtle facial movements and tones do reveal an over all sentiment. The film is playful and I hope provides a few gawps and chuckles.

           

This is the final piece which I titled 'Tell Me'.

The Pond Stills

 

 

The Pond started off as an idea for a short performance. I have a small pond in my garden and I spend a lot of time there, thinking, dreaming, singing away to myself. I maintain it by scooping out the algae and keeping it clean and healthy for frogs and plant life. Yet for the past two years the frog spawn keeps disappearing. This bothered me more than it probably should have, something had come and stolen or eaten them. I wanted to explore this idea of the little pond, its capacity for life and other mysteries. My performance artist Ladina was more than happy to get her hands dirty and experience some of my frantic despair searching through the pond for traces of life.

These are some shots from the film, photographed by Ana Molina Lopez and performed by Ladina Zimmermann. The film is still in the editing process and I will feature it later.

 

Dressing Up

For this film I wanted to explore ideas about veiling in connection with make up and jewellery. I love to dress up, and I collect many pretty shiny things. However, they often end up as decoration for the house rather than my body. I often visualyse the fancy parties I would wear them to or what kind of character I would like to be for that night. I am continuing the veiling theme in my work and adding this notion of covering or masking with make up and adornments. This film takes this idea to is furthest point, as I cover myself with every piece of jewellery and decoration that I own, meanwhile singing Keep Young and Beautiful which I find personally a particularly haunting song and if you pay attention to the lyrics its also rather cruel.

I'm including the link to the original version of the song just so you can get an idea of what spurred me on:-  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=285-qOZjt2g