The Peculiar Sculpture of Chantelle Boyle.

‘ONE’ Series - Interview 8.

Toying with both the uncomfortable and the familiar, Chantelle Boyle’s sculptures feel partially sinister whilst maintaining a sense of friendliness. Featured in Round Lemon’s ‘April Fish’ Exhibition, Chantelle is also the runner up to the Round Lemon Award 2021.

Could you tell us more about your background?

I am a Birmingham based artist. I studied Fine Art at Coventry University and graduated in 2019 with a BA – First Class honour’s degree. Also I had my first solo exhibition “Hybrid” in 2019. Following this, I was a part of Eastside Projects’ “Summer Camp” in Birmingham performing in my performance “Rabbit caught in headlights”. 

I have been involved in numerous joint exhibitions and group exhibitions “Wacko’s” (2019) at Stryx art gallery, in Birmingham, a ‘halfway degree show’ “Interlude” (2019) in the Classroom art gallery in Coventry. In the beginning of 2020, pre-pandemic, I was still able to organise yet another exhibition “Inbred”, which took place in Cheap Cheap gallery, Birmingham. 

My work titled “Benji” has also been featured in the Rugby art gallery Open Call 2020. More recently, my work has been featured online on “The Student art gallery”, “Mouthing Off magazine” and “Interextant”.

What made you take the leap to pursue a career as an artist?

The reason I chose to take the leap to pursue a career in Art was because I love the world I create not only for myself but for others. It sounds like such a cliché saying that art takes you to another place, but it really does! It truly pulls you out from the everyday, from the ordinary into a surreal, perhaps even weird at times world that I love to be in. 

I chose to pursue my love in all things strange and abnormal so I could delve into a place of uncertainty, of experimentation with materials. Everything I make is based on a genuine belief that the best thing an artist can offer the world is how they see it; reality through their eyes. This is what I mainly strive to do: to cast a perspective of how I see the world, how I see society, how I see people and everything surrounding us. This is why I chose to leap into the art world; to have a voice, to be able to actively share what I think through creative expression.

Why sculpture?

Sculpture is strange for me as I started off ripping open teddies, painting them and using their skins and disfiguring Bratz and Barbie dolls. I never really saw this as sculpture. From teddies to car parts I have used probably every unconventional material to make sculpture. I think I choose sculpture as opposed to other art forms as it allows for more freedom to use various materials and explore how one can use what is around them. 

Looking at your practice, it seems to imply a sinister aspect, a turbulent approach to sculpture. However, your material choice is the contrary, the fabrics offer the viewer a sense of comfort and familiarity. Where is this contrast coming from? Is it happening internally, emotionally?

My practice is indeed a contrast between, as you’ve pointed out, the sinister and the comfortable and familiar. This contrast is, in fact, also applicable in terms of describing me and my work; I am a very bubbly outgoing person as opposed to the sinister, somewhat dark art I create. I actually had a great childhood! It’s important to point this out as I know many people might look at my work and immediately associate it with a personal emotional torment, due to the sinister side of it – but it is not the case! 

This contrast is instead born from an internal thing that even I myself cannot explain. I think this is due to the fact that I am uncomfortable in my own skin sometimes. Even though I am confident and bubbly on the outside, on the inside I am completely different. This comfort I create for the audience in my pieces – a sense of familiarity – is what I crave for in my own head, I think. I expose my audience to the familiar, but also to the harsh reality we all are facing in our own little, personal worlds.

Could you tell us more about your sculpture ‘ELMA’?

Elma is a figure/sculpture.

Elma is a collection of a rubber mask, light bulbs, plastic and light.

Elma is half-pig, half-look-alike-sheep, half-Piglet from Winne the Pooh.

She is half-human, half-animal a hybrid, like some sort of alien creature, or from a fairy tale.

Elma plays with the idea of our thoughts and dreams of the future. 

Of what is to come in the form, of a dystopian world, of creature’s half man half creature. 

Elma shows us what the future holds in terms of our fascination to test and use animals for our own needs and use anything we can to benefit us as humans.

Elma underpins this near future world that we shy away from and underplay but what is staring us in the face. 

Elma is the future. 

‘Elma’

Which contemporary artists inspire you and why?

Contemporary artists that inspire me are: Paul Mccarthy, Marina Abramovic, Annette Messager and Mike Kelley. They all relate to the subject area my work delves massively into, which can be summarised by Freud’s concept of the “uncanny”.

This concept truly underpins and is the driving force behind my work. I create sculptures that can be somewhat familiar in structure, in form and facial features, however, alien in the materials and ways I construct them.

Paul Mccarthy inspires my work with his grotesque and unsettling scenes, which are often abject and repulsive. However, we are always intrigued and entertained in some way as the work can be humorous. This is exactly the same kind of connection I want my own art to have with the audience.  

Marina Abramovic inspires the performance aspect of my art as her work looks at endurance and at the relationship between the performer and the audience. In my performances I really strive to incite this feeling of uncertainty of unease in the audience. I have always liked this idea of a relationship being formed between the one performing and the one watching. Marina inspires me in how she challenges society and how she engages with her audience. She has pushed boundaries and broken plenty stereotypes as a woman artist.

Annette Messager inspires me for her rejection of the traditional methods in visual arts. I have also taken great inspiration from Annette’s use of materials, how she manipulates them into forms and how her work hangs in gallery spaces in such a displaced but coherent manner. 

Mike Kelley has been a great source of inspiration since University; his use of found objects, assemblages and stuffed toys. His use of found items and stuffed animals in a sculptural form was a pivotal point in how I see objects. When I first saw his work, it completely realigned my use of material from how I used skins of stuffed animals to what I saw as worthy of being used. I now look at every item that I come across as something that can definitely be used for sculpting.

What was your inspiration for ‘Buzz’? You describe it as being a part of your family, acting like a “brother type figure” but what makes you not see it as an outsider?

My Inspiration for ‘Buzz’ (2021) comes from the idea of family and what we see as our family. Is it a pet, a stuffed animal, an object? Every object has meaning, whether it be from someone who has passed away that gave it to us or even our childhood toys. 

‘Buzz’ makes us question life: is it alive, is someone performing inside it? It is this question that inspired me to create this particular piece. I am interested to learn how people view it: do they look at it as an alien creature or do they see it as one of our own? 

I see ‘Buzz’ as a family member, like all of my creations, and the reason why I do not see it as an outsider is due to the fact that all of my pieces have a life of their own. As I believe everything has a spirit from dolls to toys, I also believe my creations are made with life so therefore are alive in some sense. I do not see it as an outsider at all, yet many would, seeing that it is, in fact, made from materials and looks a certain way; nonetheless, it still has a purpose, it was made for a reason. 

‘Buzz’

Your work ‘Buzz’ (2021) has a funny element not only in the way it is photographed but also in your method of bringing together totally different materials. Is humour something you are interested in in your practice? Why?

Humour is something that I like to bring into my work as it makes it – especially my work that is kind of uneasy and grotesque – easier to relate to in a sense. I like to play around with this contrast of humour and this intensity about my work that is so opposing. 

This contrast between emotions, humour and the familiar and the disturbing and unsettling is something that I play with, in order to make the audience question everything about the set up. ‘Buzz’ (2021) is a perfect example of this. It portrays a humorous, kind of weird situation, where no one really knows what’s going on. Humour is definitely a go to for me as it is something I also use when interacting with people, so to have it in my work is a huge bonus for me.

Do you have any current projects or shows that you are working on?

I have been working on a sculptural/performance piece for some months now. It will include a large sculpture – probably the biggest I have ever done – alongside a performance and some figures with it. This piece will be an accumulation of live photographs and a live stream along with a video piece that can be viewed. 

I also have some Instagram takeovers coming up, so be sure to check out my social media to know when those are happening. I have some ideas for possible exhibitions that I want to set up in my studio space, so there might be some exciting times ahead!

What is the best way for the other to connect with you?

The best way in which you can connect with me is through my social media accounts like Instagram: @chantellemayboyle or through email: chantelle.boyle18@gmail.com.