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Rhian Jarman

My recent atwork is a personal response to my family history of breast cancer. I have created various forms of 'stain' imagery which, for me, is a metaphor of the body's purity and fragility being stained and invaded by cancer.

Through my art I have also explored the constant change and fluctuation of the female body, through the inevitable - aging or illness. My work is influenced by feminist theory of the idealistic female form, sexualised and fetished through mass media. This has resulted in various images of the female torso. Possessing no identity, they accentuate only the sexual parts and are purely objects of the voyeuristic gaze. I strive to express through my art, the reality of femininity.

Abstract landscape representation has also become one of my main fascinations. My art work often originates as a direct response and personal interpretation or reaction to the subject matter. My initial studies are usually in line, fast and fluid, capturing the basic elements of the landscape. I am predominantly interested in man-made landscape, especially when it contrasts with scenes of natural beauty.
I develop my own own studies using paint or print so the end result is both a personal reaction to time and place and an intricatly worked composition .

Comments by others:
"But it is Rhian Jarman, who grew up in Blackwood, Gwent, who has created the most thought-provoking images in the exhibition. As well as abstract landscapes, her best work is that which considers the human form and condition. Jarman's copper etchings of laundered sheets and an empty hospital ward are both fascinating and unsettling viewing. The blood red, black and rusty colours add to the impression of deterioration and makes the sheets and hospital look unsanitary and unpleasant; one can't help but feel sympathy for anyone who would have to spend time there. Jarman has worked in community arts and her work reflects a real consciousness of people's fragility" (by Carrie Briffett in The Big Issue No.502, March 2006, pp.24-25).

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'Sheets', photographic etching,
35x46cm

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'Torso', ink on paper ......... 'Stain1', metal etching ..... 'N.Y.Grid Lines', Pencil/wat.col.on paper
51x47cm ....... 146x35cm ........ 51x39cm