About Rhian Cooke
Rhian Cooke works across film, animation, sculpture and installation. She explores the intersection of nature and the environment, and the shift between imagination and reality. Cooke examines the fictional hidden possibilities below the surface of our environments.
Her interests in wildlife, cycling, and the shifts and changes of the urban and natural environments shape her work. Her short film series ‘Traffic Trio’ reflects her interest in the effects of natural and manmade light. She enjoys seeing how lights perform in the streets from speeding signs to high vis clothing; she translates these ideas into her work by exploring how lights and reflections can communicate and perform on screen.
Sculpture enables me to have endless possibilities, whether that is the surface of three-dimensional objects I make, the environment they inhabit or additions of audio. Sometimes when I do a drawing, I often struggle fitting everything onto the page. In my films, I use sculptural processes as they allow the viewer to see the three dimensionalities of the objects, and how they can move and tell a narrative. Film allows you to manipulate an object further, change its scale or place it in a new environment. I also find the sculptural process of building and making enjoyable.
Rhian’s video works often start with a handmade process or material, utilising textiles, drawing, and recycled personal old objects such as bike helmets, hair accessories and bike lights. In recent work she has been considering the sustainability of her practice, collecting and repurposing a wide variety of materials and objects to create the multiple layers in her work. Examples include; painting on cereal cardboard to create her backdrops, using the process of papier mâché with fabric to create moving objects, and animating glow in the dark bike tape. Cooke has an ongoing process of collecting audio recordings, imagery and video on her phone and digital camera. She often uses computer scanners to materialise the texture of her paintings and drawing on screen.
Cooke allows her creations and materials to perform together using film, photography, and animation processes such as stop motion and 3D editing software. She edits them together to tell on-going stories about the fragility within the changes and crossovers in nature and the environment.
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