Rups Cregeen

Rups Cregeen's work is concerned with coastal geography: tides, sea state, light and weather. Work attempts to excavate and decode a kaleidoscope of memories and explores human place in the world. Outcomes vary between two-dimensional and three-dimensional responses, with great interest in the composition and curation of multiple situations or experiences in time, weather and tide. Materials chosen echo landscape and natural form contrasting with vibrant colour choices taken from an 80’s surf culture.

 

Rups graduated in 2020 with a (First Class) BA Hons in Fine Art at UCA Farnham. She has been awarded the Elfrieda Windsor Scholarship to study an MA at UCA, Farnham. She is mentored by artist, Danny Rolph, through his Sedici programme. She has exhibited in London, Jersey, Middlesborough, Ireland and Surrey.

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Iron Lung (2020)

Scaffolding, Weather Balloon, Air

 

This work captures a volume of sky within the constraints of a weather balloon that is trapped within a ridged steel structure. The weather balloon represents a hegemonic restraint of something as intangible and whimsical as air/sky. 

 

The iron lung was traditionally used to treat patients unable to breathe for themselves, often due to diseases such as polio. It had been abandoned in favour of more modern breathing apparatuses, however, since the rise of Covid-19, there has been a renewed interest in the concept of the iron lung, which assists breathing through a negative pressure system. In order to receive the treatment, a patient is encased in an iron cylinder.

 

Imprisonment and loss of personal liberty during Covid-19 is left unquestioned. It is for the greater good, but to what individual costs?   There is such a monumental sacrifice of the world’s mental health; the education of the next generation of thinkers and inventors is compromised, and people’s livelihoods are perilous.