Plymouth College of Art

Plymouth College of Art / News / Mon 21 Jun 2010

One to Watch at Plymouth College of Art Degree Show

One to Watch at Plymouth College of Art Degree Show

Thais Scarlett Aurora Lenkiewicz, 22, from Plymouth

With her family name, it’s unsurprising that Thais has followed in her family footsteps to become an artist.
Daughter of painter Robert Lenkiewicz and mother Karen Lenkiewicz, also a painter, her earliest memories are of painting with her father in the studio in which she was born, on the historic Plymouth Barbican.

Nearing the end of her final year of a Fine Art degree at Plymouth College of Art she is putting the finishing touches to her work, an installation which will be on display at the College’s Degree Show, 25 June to 2 July.

“It’s been a year of death!” she says about her final years’ work. “Much of my inspiration this year has come from spring and the sights that come with it. Among the sudden abundance of life are the odd reminders of death.”

“Coming across a lively field in lambing season last year, I saw static white dots across the landscape, lambs that didn’t survive. I have been using these images, and the bones of a seagull I found to explore a certain emotional response to this, which has led me to this current project”

“I thought about the seagull and the process of decomposition. As I don’t like the idea of being buried or cremated, I would really like to have an open air burial.”

Thais incorporated seagull bones embedded in wooden building blocks from her childhood. Each block has a delicate clasp and opens up to reveal a clean bone.

Her main installation piece at The Degree Show is called “Gaius Pumidius Dipilus Heic Fuit”, and is named after the excavation of graves in Pompeii, the title is said to be ancient graffiti discovered on the city’s walls meaning ‘Gaius Pumidius dipilus was here’.

The piece incorporates casts from dead birds, with remnants of its feathers left behind from the process. Detailed drawings of these ‘traces’ are suspended within a modified bird house.

Having described the South West as a place to settle and with her own studio on the Barbican, and her impressive heritage, it would seem that Thais’s future in the Creative Industries will see her as one to watch.

See Thais’s work at the Plymouth College of Art Degree Show in Studio 11, on Regent Street. The annual end of year exhibition will showcase Degree students work throughout the College.

The Degree Show runs from Friday 25 June to 2 July. Entrance is free and the College is open from 9am until 8.30pm Monday to Friday, and 9.30am – 4.30pm on Saturday during the show.

For more information visit www.plymouthart.ac.uk or telephone 01752 203434.

For more information visit http://www.plymouthart.ac.uk/

News Location