watsonvalis@aol.com
Education
2006 Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art, Cyprus College of Art, Limassol, Cyprus
2005 BA (hons) Creative Arts: Art and Creative Studies in English, Bath Spa University, Bath, England
Additional Qualifications
ASET Award in Post-16 Teaching (Art and Design)
ASET Award in Exhibition Organisation
Group Exhibitions
January - February 2007 Abandoned Chairs, Norwich Arts Centre, Norwich, England.
This project was curated by Paul Kuzemczak
(See Published Works below)
June 2006 End of Year Exhibition, The Limassol Studios, Limassol, Cyprus
June 2005 Degree Show, Bath Spa University, Bath, England
Published Works
December 2006 (Forthcoming) Abandoned Chairs, limited edition art book, 1 image featured
Exhibitions (As Organiser)
June 2006 End of Year Exhibition, The Limassol Studios, Limassol, Cyprus
Statement
I am a young artist specialising in the use of photography, predominantly as a tool for the documentation and curatorship of the visual world.
My work deals largely with themes of absense versus presence, often in relation to the human environment. Within this area I have developed a particular fascination with derelict architecture and abandoned spaces. Such places - crumbling, even collapsing, overgrown and dusty - carry a disquieting atmosphere resulting from the tension between past associations and the current state of emptiness.
The series of photos, produced during my time at the Cyprus College of Art
and documenting the many dilapidated and empty buildings in the old town area
of Limassol in which I lived, is perhaps the best realisation of these concerns.
These pictures are intended as an exploration of the atmosphere conveyed by
these spaces - the feelings of loneliness and melancholy they instil. As such
they utilise a deliberately muted palette as an evocation of fading and the
eroding passage of time.