MOONLAND PRESENTING
AMY HASLEHURST
VISUAL ARTIST
Amy Haslehurst is a young visual artist from Perth, Western Australia currently residing in Iceland. Since a young age, Amy has used self-portraiture as a form of expression and to create new worlds. After graduating with a degree in Fine Arts and Photography, she moved across the world to Iceland where her work took on new form.
Exploring themes of isolation and melancholia fused with influence from Icelandic folklore and the moody and volatile landscapes in Iceland, Amy continues to use self-portraiture to create ghostly characters that wander in the shadows of the earth.
5 QUICK QUESTIONS
1. Tell us the story behind your favourite picture/video?
A few years ago I got really into using capes to distance the personal feel of a human figure and become more anonymous. Out in the highlands of Iceland, there’s this one area that really captures my imagination – it’s a wide black sand plain skirting the edge of a glacier with a surreal green mountain in the middle of it all. “Just passing through” captures a feeling I’ve had in these places of being a ghost wandering the expanses.
2. What do you want the viewers to take away from your work?
I believe that recognising the artists intention is just as important as interpreting a work in your own way, and the two should work synonymously. Whilst the viewer is free to take away anything they like from my work, I hope that they can also connect to the imagery – the lonely expanses, a quiet sense of dread, a prevailing melancholy and the subtle eternal beauty of abandoned places.
3. How important is content vs form in your work?
I’m going to interpret this as the subject of the work vs the aesthetics. In that case, I think both are equally important for me in my own work. When looking at other work, I wish I could take in the subject more than the aesthetic, but I have a really particular taste. It’s really difficult for me for example to enjoy modern art, abstract and minimalism for example, whilst the concept might be strong, the visual look of it really doesn’t appeal to me.
4. Tell us about a project that changed the way you take pictures/videos, or even changed the way you live your life?
I think using capes back in 2015 is where it really started for me. It started small, with a costume cape I bought that was short and awkward, and now the longest one I have is 7 metres long. Using the cape changed the way I photographed – I no longer had to care in my self portraits about how my face looked, how the pose was, I could just be in frame and consider the surroundings more. Using the cape helped me transition into a state of not caring about the judgements of others around, I’m here and I’m weird – it actually shocked me how many people loved the concept.
5. Name another or several creatives that inspires you, and why?
I’m going to say Francesca Woodman right now. She was an amazingly talanted photographer who’s life ended to quickly.
OUR SELECTION
GO FOLLOW AMY HASLEHURST AT INSTAGRAM