Not My Cup Of Tea exhibition

Photograph by Faith Berry

I participated in an exhibition alongside 22 other artists, I chose to exhibit The Death of Childhood as it was an older piece which I had yet to exhibit publicly.

Death Of Childhood Continued

Childhood Torn Apart, Chaz Howkins, 2015, assemblage on board

I went on from creating the silhouette paintings on collaged backgrounds by taking this idea further and painting on material collaged on board.  I planned to leave the piece at the painted stage but felt it was rather uninteresting, so I decided to collage further by adding doll limbs, clothing and chunks of doll hair.  This turned the piece into more of an assemblage piece as it was now three dimensional.  The scattered limbs and hair give the piece a broken, disconnected feel, as if to represent a childhood which has been torn apart.

The Death of Childhood

The Death of Childhood, Chaz Howkins, 2015, doll attached to canvas

This piece visually communicates a sudden ending of childhood as the doll represents the innocence of childhood, with the stabbing through the canvas representing an incident that suddenly forces childhood to end.  I decided to use a real doll instead of painting one, as I felt it would have more of an intimidating presence, giving the piece a greater sense of reality and making it more hard hitting.