Portfolio – Ashley Brown

Draw the veil - The Liminality of Dementia, 2021

My artwork portrays my grandfather. He has dementia. He looks absent minded, yet he is content – even in his liminal space between reality and irrationality, he is at ease.

I used charcoal for this artwork because charcoal is made in a no-oxygen environment.

The process takes several hours to vaporise and eject or burn off volatile compounds and elements such as methane, tar, hydrogen, and water. Just as the searing heat removes these substances, dementia burns away short-term memory and brain function.

The voile represents the boundary dementia naturally draws, partially and progressively dividing the sufferer from his or her family members and the world around. Pressed flowers, although no longer living, retain their beautiful colours. With dementia, while a person’s short-term memory fades, their long-term memories come alive and invade their experience of the present. Like pressed flowers, my grandfather’s long-term memories retain their vibrance and essence, but like the voile, they have no substance, except for him…

I will remember more than your skull, 2021

This artwork speaks of my grandfather’s dementia as well as liminality. The

cow skull links to liminality because it represents the space where something

dead is now forgotten. Nobody will remember that cow or how it looked…

I will never forget my grandfather once he has passed, but his dementia will not be my enduring memory of him. I want to use the liminal space of the forgotten after death to show how my memory of his dementia will fade, but not my memories of him as a person.

My medium of burning powder simultaneously produced construction and destruction. Although dementia can be a destructive force in the lives of those that experience it, and for their families, it is also something that constructs each affected individual, as we adapt, grow and learn in response.

The large scale of my work reminds us how dementia can overwhelm those with the condition and their family members.

Fleeced, 2021

This artwork depicts a wolf-like beast which represents a perpetrator of sexual assault. I created this beast to depict the animalistic nature of rape.

The prominent human-like genitals are used to shock the viewer and to highlight the fact that as humans we have choice, and we don’t have to give in to impulses. The mushrooms on the beast’s back represent mind-altering substances like alcohol and sedatives that are used in date rape.

A perpetrator of date rape is like a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” luring the victim in with charm and the use of alcohol and drugs. With the clarity of hindsight vision the victim can see the true nature of the rapist. This artwork depicts this character as seen with 2020 hindsight vision.

The large scale of the artwork is to make the beast appear more ominous.

Healing Hands, 2021

I have used the image of my own hands in this artwork as a symbol of healing from sexual assault. Hands have the power to hurt but also to create, to comfort and to heal. As a victim it is important to lean on loved ones around

you but also to focus on one’s own strength to heal and create a new future.

The open position of the hands represents the vulnerability I feel as I heal.

Nasturtium flowers are known to represent victory or triumph over an enemy.

I used them in my screen-print design for the background to symbolize my journey from victim to victor.

Reclamation, 2021

My painting is all about reclaiming my body after being sexually assaulted. After the assault about a year and a half ago I didn’t feel comfortable within my own body, I felt dirty. When I looked in the mirror, I saw a body that had had x done to it, a body that was assaulted. I could not look at my naked body and see it for what it was, I was not able to separate the assault from my body. However lately I am starting to be able to reclaim my body. I can look at my naked body in the mirror and not feel uncomfortable. I am starting to see my body for what it is and not for what has happened to it. My painting is about that reclamation and about feeling more comfortable with being vulnerable.

1 Step forward, 2 steps back, 2021

This artwork is about me trying to reclaim my self-image. For a long time, I allowed the world and people around me to define my self-image which resulted in me falling into body dysmorphia. I attempt to use this artwork and its process to see my-self as beautiful once again. The rats in this piece represent the negative forces such as beauty standards, lack of motivation, criticism, past trauma, pursuit of material things, pressure to portray myself in a certain way and distractions, I was surrounded with at the time. The rats are on the subject’s body, consuming her, leaving dirty footprints all over her body. She appears defeated and does not struggle to shake them.