Teresa Wells, Artist- Home Page

Teresa Wells, ARBS

I often find that my work may be informed by an ethical or moral question. Although this may not be overtly reflected in the final piece, I draw the viewer in using scale, form and sometimes text. In this way I can encourage participation and transform the viewer into the role of field anthropologist.

I am inspired by questions such as "How do humans behave?” "What defines human life and society?" and "What are humans' physical differences?” These questions transformed the work that began as the initial exploration of self into pieces that became the visual outcome of a participant observer and amateur social anthropologist.

I take influence from the ethnographies of anthropologists such as Mary Douglas, Nigel Barley and Desmond Morris; they studied people everywhere – what they make, what they do, what they think and how they classify their social relationships and societies. Their customs, economic and political organization, law and conflict resolution, kinship and family structure, childrearing and socialization, religion, and so on.

This developed a personal interest in exploring human kind and cultural differences. Travelling to Asia, Africa, America, and Europe, I was able to observe, take photographs and collect stories documented in local media coverage. I concluded that human behaviour is driven by the same desires regardless of geographical location.

In response I made the morality series, “Rational Voices, Irrational Deeds”, culminating in a 4 meter installation/sculpture. I combined large oak stained wooden frames and life sized hand stitched muslin portraits to suggest the fragile consciousness of human beings as they played out life’ events in contradictory fashion.

The narrative of my visual outcome has become informed by the subject matter of original text, visual supporting material and my own photography.

Primarily a maker, however, I generally use whatever materials I intuitively feel to be appropriate (usually metaphorically), to realize my intent. I believe my work should reflect an understanding of the material I am using and should demonstrate technical proficiency. I will also often find myself becoming preoccupied with form and proportion of the pieces. Recently my awareness of the human anatomy has informed current pieces, resurrecting my early developmental query and research into the reasons for making and my route into anthropology.

For details of where Teresa is exhibiting her work, please see the events page.