Up Against It proposes another way of documenting our relationship with our environment by centring experience. Stokes’ tin pieces, which she calls assemblages, encapsulate a moment in time in vintage sweet or tobacco tins, and she says that the foundation of most of her pieces is a journey.
She writes that ‘these objects I utilise have a history of their own, having been on a journey themselves after time spent in someone’s pocket, on a shelf or in the sea. These objects are also used as framing devices to contain and sometimes magnify the subject matter.’* Up Against It’s tin encapsulates a moment in a weary hiker’s climb, bringing to life what is otherwise an abstract and remote sense of place as represented in the map behind it. The objects altogether tell a vivid, almost sensory story of engagement with our environment.
* Artist’s statement extracted from the artist’s website: https://www.jaynestokes.com/artists/
