Originally from Dunfermline and a graduate of Gray’s School of Art, Charlotte Forsyth deploys a combination of illustration, painting, print and textiles to explore and understand their creative identity and purpose within the capitalocentric cyberspace.
Informed by an interest in internet and counterculture, the exhibited body of work examines the modern phenomenon of aesthetic-based online communities. The prospect of collecting, organising, defining and sharing that which one associates with oneself is difficult to resist and easy to commodify. Defining identity via preferred aesthetics eradicates the need to practice it in person and to think of ourselves in relation to others. Thus, in isolation we are more susceptible to consumerist influence.
The aesthetic mood-boards frequently seen online resemble shopping lists. Each component is often a product available to buy, and this romanticises the notion that a sense of self and belonging is easier purchased than carefully cultivated. Each image within this work has been curated at random to encourage the audience to scramble for meaning among the painted motifs of alternative culture, which may or may not be present.
The artist views crafting and DIY as the ultimate form of resistance to this influence, as these time-honoured traditions have the potential to connect us with generations of likeminded people, and the permanence of the materials used allows them to capture a piece of their soul which will live on forever.
