Amber Barker
Makes Stuff and Does Things
WORKS
2016 - Present
Women's Work
Gloria Steinem has said, "[...]I came to understand that, in many ways, women are all bunnies. We are all in that position to be judged by our external selves, being paid less, working harder[…]".
My Women’s Work Series questions the objectification and commodification of the female form as mediated through craft processes. How does one value 'women's work'; work that has been long associated with being of lesser significance than that of the opposing sex? The images of the women I have used as source material have been taken directly from the pages of Playboy Magazine from the 1960s and 1970s. At the time, Hugh Hefner, the founder, had placed himself at the head of a so-called 'Sexual Revolution' which is fitting since the people who benefited and profited from said movement were predominantly male. The women portrayed in the pages of this magazine had been photographed for a specific purpose and then stripped of their humanity, replaced only with the moniker of 'Playboy Model', thus the disposable make-up removing cloths I have used to portray them upon are also meant to used once and then ultimately discarded.
2015
Three Declarative Statements Disguised As An Afghan And A Wall Hanging
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I will now shamelessly paraphrase a piece of advice I was once given by someone very integral in my undergraduate education, ‘you should always be obsessed with your own work.’
And I have been.
This recent work has consumed me.
It has taken its tolls on my hands, my back, my eyes.
It has kept me alert, tossing and turning at 4 in the morning, sick with nausea for an unpredictable future.
It has burdened me with self doubt, loathing and fear.
And yet I cried with emotions equal to that of ecclesiastical psalms, hallucinating angels smiling down at me once it was completed. Not because the torture was over but because I had never been so proud.
This work is obsessive in its good and bad. It has developed into different manifestations but their commonalities link them like siblings. And thus, I have declared myself their craft-mother: tired, broken, sleepless and adoring.
(But I’ve finished now so feel free to tell my friends and family that I’m still alive and ready to start socializing again.)
2014-2015
Post Grad Pity Party
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Sure, you've graduated but now what? You have student loans, and part time jobs and packages and packages of instant ramen all taking time away from the reason you went to school in the first place. Where did all those people go? The ones who told you you were brilliant? It's hard to feel like the next up-and-coming when you're stuck in the throws of your own Pity Party. Why not just sit back and dwell in it until MoMa realizes what they're missing. (Some Results May Vary)
2013-2014
Anxious Advice for Young Daughters
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This work is as much about the content as it is about the material on which it is found. Using paper plates and permanent markers, stories begin to emerge by the sampling of images from the iconic and recognizable patterns of Blue Willow China. An idealised tale of two exotic lovers that becomes entangled with the awkward reality of my own romantic endeavors. The plates act as fragmented pages of a diary while simultaneously 'serving' these tales for all to see.
Development
2012-2014
Collection of works leading up to Anxious Advice for Young Daughters.
Selected works (2013-2014) that led up to and inform Anxious Advice for Young Daughters. This final work initially began as a study in making ceramic doillies as a result of the passing of my grandmother. As the designs for these objects started to get more intricate and detailed I began to draw them on paper plates first before extruding the clay material, this way the plates would act not only as a base for the fragile work while it dried but would then burn away during firing. Soon, I found that my pen work was much too detailed for the clay to copy and started investigating the paper plates themselves, thus abandoning the ceramic component in order to pursue a more in-depth look at their significance within Ceramics history.
Work made during 2012-2013 are some examples of the ceramic pieces I was making before this material shift.
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