ARTIST STATEMENT

Anna Falcini’s work stems from her interest in phemenological experiences captured in the ephemeral, the atmospheres of spaces, archival materials and nature. Implicit in these methodologies are the tangible traces of the past revealed through archaeological and research-based processes. Her practice addresses the unconscious realms that imprint their shadows upon us, paying attention to the sensory dialogues of the body and the hidden materials of knowledge that are dormant. Her research often embodies imaginary or historical characters as is the case with Louisa Cornford, an amateur archaeologist that is the artist’s alter ego and her later creations, Julie and Decoywoman. These solitary protagonists emerge in her semi-fictional films, in bespoke costumes alongside works of photographs, drawings and performances; a constellation of the mythological and archival. More recently, Falcini has looked closely at the archives of the late Welsh artist, Gwen John and produced a series of works, resulting in a dialogue through the archive about the female artistic experience.

Observing the sensory responses in landscapes, she developed an immersive relationship to the Hoo Peninsula, a marshland on the Thames estuary where nature became a portal to the unconscious; a spiritual engagement that she established through a major body of work. In character as Louisa Cornford, Falcini developed the Archive of Atmosphere, a collection of numerous relics from the landscape, (plant specimens, liquids, powders and discarded objects) collected and archived by Cornford and identified as having atmospheric properties. Falcini made other important works such as Night Drawings, Allhallows, a collection of instinctive drawings made at the edge of the seawall at night in darkness and Spiritual Conversations, a series of recorded conversations about her psychological relationship to the estuary with the spiritual counsellor Sharon Elliot.

Through an archaeological approach Falcini draws upon her own shadowy states of female experience, developing feminine archives of consciousness. Buried deep, these states are excavated and float back into being through performance, drawing, film and objects with works of art that interweave into a dream-like, nervous system of possibilities. Art making is a personal way of negotiating the world in which she lives, addressing the emotional states of vulnerability and sensitivity continuously observed and played out in the work. Resisting classification or description, her work is characterized by a minimal aesthetic and depth; in this sense interpretation is set against the intention of the work to suspend language and the conscious realm. Falcini creates worlds or narratives that invite the viewer to slip into other states inducing experiences of silence, stillness and serenity.