Josie Beszant (UK, North Yorkshire)
Mending (2015)
Mixed media (fabric, thread, pill capsules, ink, pins, paint)
ARTIST STATEMENT:
My work explores the beauty that can be found in the broken and damaged, in stories that we carry through the objects preserved. I use found items combined with papers, textiles and paint. I am interested in the layers of meaning that can be tangible by using found objects.
I am a (step) parent. There has always been something wrong with my fertility and the ability to birth my own children was surgically removed from me when I was 29 so that I could survive. This leaves scars, physically and mentally. As a stepparent, you are sometimes made to feel not as valuable as a birth parent. As a woman minus the organs that make her a woman it can be easy to feel as if you don’t fit anywhere. However these scars have healed, and my role as a parent has been wonderful, colourful, loving and fun – one that I wouldn’t exchange for anything.
My piece hopes to bring to mind a few things, a monstrance (Roman Catholic vessel for giving the sacrament), the moon, even biological cells. The work contains holes, damage, held together with beautiful vibrant colour, with pins. It shows a history of damage and repair. Capsules surround the centre, full of vibrant threads, threads that hold us together, and appear in the repairs. This piece fits within my practice, however it is more personal than most pieces.
Over the past five years, Josie Beszant’s work has been exhibited in the UK, USA and New Zealand. She also owns Masham Gallery in North Yorkshire, which represents more than 80 British artists.