ELIZA BENETT
Lives and works in United Kingdom
Biography
Born in England 1980, Eliza now resides in London. In 1997-1999 she studied a B-Tec National Diploma in Fine Art at Stafford College, specializing in textiles. From this point all formal ‘art’ training ended, as she went on in 1999-2002 to study a B.A. Honors in Fashion Design and Illustration at Middlesex University. This was a course that placed emphasis on concept and the creation of these ideas. In choosing a course she was careful to select one that placed little emphasis on commercial fashion and marketing as she was excited by the sculptural and figurative elements in fashion design and knew early on that she had little desire to embrace the industry as part of her life. After graduating she focused on her artistic development, working freelance creating bespoke pieces to commission. She found a natural gravitation towards costume design and prop making, stemming from her interest in creating a visual narrative by working with concept, form and character. Over the last couple of years she has returned to producing her own artistic work. It continues to be her main drive and focus.
Artist statement
As a visual interpreter, Eliza employs a range of techniques such as sculpting, casting, sewing and carving and applies them to the expression of themes central to existence, such as the formation and disintegration of identity, and the complexity of communication. With her work she is looking to create an iconography of physical existence, concentrating on the wonder of the lived moment, lifting the ‘intentional’ body to a state of reverence and worship. She expresses emotional experience in the form of tactile and animate sensations. Sometimes resulting in fixed sculpture, other times in photography, installation and film.
Pleading Affluenza can be viewed as an offering which provokes contemplation about physicality and the human capacity to perceive and act. The pleading hands are deep buttoned, referencing the style that was characteristically applied to inanimate furnishings of the Victorian bourgeoisie, and encased in an attempt to lift them out of their natural environment. The artist refers to the old and familiar styles of this era of artifice, by way of representing the body as a slightly ridiculous collection of ornamental parts, subject to the same alienating status of inert, lifeless objects.
“Acquisitiveness, riches and idleness had finally trapped her. Commodification of self had been her ultimate sacrifice. She placed herself and her acquisition on show, she stopped moving forwards, her life became still… She could no longer dwell in that soft well upholstered cell.”