Frances Goodman
The mundane, the ordinary and the trivial have always been of interest to Frances Goodman as she believes they all obscure dark places - issues and emotions that people do not wish to confront.
She began her investigations into this area with work dealing with routines. More specifically: the fine line that exists where daily routines become obsessions, when they become unacceptable to society. Paranoia and neuroses about specific and seemingly insignificant things often hide deep-seated fears, resentments and prejudices. She used the example of people's fear of germs as a reaction to the physical structures, in which they are forced to operate, where there is a distinct lack of space.
After working with a number of media she eventually found that words and language had the uncanny ability to unnerve and get under people's skins in a way that visual images and modes could not. Words function in a similar way to her concerns: on the surface they seem simple and clear, and yet they are often full of innuendoes and subtexts. They to have a dark underbelly. This is because they do not hold a sacred position in society, which often seems the case with many art forms. They are the raw matter of life, the buildings-blocks of relationships and social interactions.
She works with everyday issues such as relationships, violence, personal impressions and memories, all of which seem to be based on collective emotions that are experienced individually, and feel deeply personal and unique to everyone. She loves listening to POP songs on the radio because no matter what mood she is in she will eventually hear a song that expresses the way she feels. She intends her work to function in this manner because the subject matter is deeply personal, while being broadly based which makes it accessible and familiar to the listener.
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