20/05/16
Portfolio: Henrietta Armstrong
As a child,
Henrietta Armstrong used to make large robots from odd bits of wood she
would hammer together in the garden. In her young mind, these would guard the
house. “I don’t have an awareness of ever wanting to be an artist,” she says,
looking back. “I just always was one.”
Armstrong describes
herself as both “a visual thinker” and “a total clutterbug”. She trawls the
internet for source material, collects unusual fabrics and enjoys rummaging
around car boot sales and Parisian flea markets. Recently, she has been looking
at ways to expand her practice and is taking a crash course in animation from
YouTube tutorials.
Armstrong is
also working with four other women artists to put on an exhibition, The
Overview Effect, this month. “The Overview Effect is the name given to the
change in perspective that astronauts have when they view Earth from space and
realise how fragile it is in its relation to the universe,” she explains. “I
have always really loved the structure of pylons and have been digitally
manipulating photos I have taken. I’ve been looking at the idea of future
civilisations or aliens looking at these weird structures without knowing what
they were for, like they were deities to worship or offerings to our gods. I’m
completely obsessed with patterns. Drawing lines and connecting things up,
physically and metaphorically, is very satisfying.”
See
Henrietta Armstrong’s work in The Overview Effect at Lewisham Art House from
6-19 June 2016.
Image:
Henrietta Armstrong
Pylon 6 (2016)
Published in the June 2016 issue of DIVA magazine