Nancy Chapman is an East Sussex based artist who is currently studying a BA (Hons) in Fine Art at University Centre Hastings and will be graduating in 2023. Fabricated and artificial human connections form the basis of Nancy's work, with the intention of provoking deep emotional responses akin to grief and longing. Through her use of found imagery, she orchestrates intimate narratives which plead to be uncovered. By dedicating time to an unknown figure whose life exists exclusively within the confines of a photograph, Nancy initiates an elaborate mourning ceremony. Her work consequently encourages empathy from an audience, as well as curiosity for its fascination with a time period so lapsed and unreachable; it proposes an essence of mystery which we long to realise. Most particularly, Nancy seeks imagery of women in a search for queer visibility which has been erased from history. This operation is an act of reassurance, which enforces her existence in the LGBT community. Her own experiences with love inspire her work profoundly, transforming her paintings into a kind of self portrait. For this reason Nancy’s work is heavily inspired by the photography of Sophie Calle, and the immense complications of our most mundane human interactions. Desperate to experience an all consuming intimacy, Calle orchestrates extensive experiments which explore the emotional intensity of fleeting moments. In a similar exploration, my work assumes the search for a poignant connection which will feed this act of longing.

Instagram: @NancyChapman.art