Chloe – Hand on Heart

When I first heard the title of this piece I tried to think of / by imagining how I would imagine my heart and I instantly thought of a rock, heavy, solid, impenetrable, alone. And I thought This surprised me because I usually see myself as easily affected by those around me, so I knew I wanted that to be the center of my work.

I wanted the other individual pieces to be held together and trapped in a fishing net because I feel like I entangle and trap people in my problems and life. The rest of the sand sculpture is made up of individual ideas around this topic. I’ve had a fascination with hands in my artwork for a while, so I wanted to explore how I could use unconventional materials to make the shape. Ball pit balls proved difficult! I wanted one of the hands to have their fingers crossed because I thought it represented that you never know anyone else’s intentions → the action of crossing your fingers in front of your body means good luck, but behind your back is for lying. I wanted an unavoidable creature to be present, and it is looking at the people in the chocolate bag. This pool, to me, represents the “perfect” relationships you see online, on TV or in movies, I often question all of my relationships when my anxiety is high / I’m feeling particularly anxious, and I think it’s easy to compare yourself to others’ perception of others but you often don’t see, only I’m not even sure what a perfect relationship means to me. The final part, a heart made of plastic bottles. You never see, You only see what others want you [to see]. The final pool, a vaguely anatomical heart made of plastic bottles, is an addition I decided to make at the very end. I couldn’t make a piece about the heart without a nod to my biology teacher from school, I still remember how her presence in the heart changes, it is 15 years later and I still remember looking at.