About Abbie Cairns

I am an artist-teacher based in Essex. I have completed and BA (Hons) Fine Art, graduating 2016, and MA Fine Art, graduating 2018. I am currently completing my Ph.D. at Norwich University of the Arts.

I teach art in adult community learning, am a board member for Colchester Art Society and facilitate the Creative Practitioner Support Programme at SPACE Colchester.

My practice is involved in the use of linguistics and shared public language, which can be accessed and interpreted in an infinite amount of ways by an audience. The intention being to engage the audience and creating a dialectical relationship between the art and the audience.

The connection between language and time also interests me. It is fleeting and ever-changing. To echo this in my work outcomes are often moveable and temporary. My practice takes a DIY approach, as such I use materials that are often inexpensive and processes that are easily accessible.

WE ARE THE MINORIES - Hanging Signs

Continuing the colour pallet 

Inspiration

The visual for these signs was intended to also be used as the logo. This meant that the outcome needed to be simplistic and clear. To develop the signs I took the AR T from the main signage (space and all) and used this as the start point.

Material

The work is made from vinyl due to my previous work in this and its suitability for outside installation.

The making of

Installation

Final Outcome

The Road Sign Collection 0.2

 A taster of the next series of The Road Sign Collection. 

fail better

 ‘fail better’ draws on the words of Samuel Beckett, however, this is not important to the audience, what is important is each viewer and their personal reading of the words. There are infinite possibilities of ways this could resonate with them.

The piece is intended as a temporary sculptural installation, with each letter intended to start its tenure standing up right, something that due to their fragility may change over the course of display.

The work itself is fraught with failure. The letters themselves as imperfect, intentionally so. Hand crafted to add intention and purpose to the words chosen.

Unfamiliars: Tales for the Fireside 2

Putting together my contribution for the Unfamiliars: Tales for the Fireside 2 zine started by considering the title, the first thing that came to mind for me was the first line of many fairy tales, 'once upon a time'. The use of these phases would draw upon shared public language and resonate with others familiar with fairy tales. 

Once upon a time...

From taking this initial start point I then explored how to expand this. I often work with automatic writing due to its nonsensical outcomes. I employed my smartphone here, to create digital automatic texts which followed on from the phases, 'once upon a time'. 

To create these outcomes I entered the phase and then selected the predicted text, this adds a personal element to the outcome as the phone draws on my most used language. I wanted to move away from these outcomes - mostly as it turns out I am not that exciting and the outcome was not as playful as I had hoped!

Digital Automatic Writing

The second exploration on the start phrase was to look at synonyms for the words, finding words that mean the same thing as each word component. This exploration is the one I decided to develop, it allowed me to start breaking the language and moving it away from the shared public language of the initial phase and move towards something more Dada. The change is slight but enough to distort the reading a little. 

Synonyms

Once each of the words in the phrase had been replaced I start to put them together using my ACcomplte4 plaster letters. The maternity of the final outcome is not particularly important, it is just the medium I am currently interested in working in.

Final Outcome

See the final copy in print, available to buy at Tales for the fireside // Hand Embellished Limited Magazine | Etsy