Hattie Godfrey

‘In tragedy characters lay hold of suffering and make it their own – claim it in such a way that failure and limitation become meaningful, indeed, gloriously so.’
 Hiking with Nietsche, John Kaag
 
My work utilizes my own ‘broken’ body as a medium with which to explore my own and societies increasingly complicated relationship with the concept of ‘care’.
 
‘Care’ is commonly associated with notions of ‘giving’ and ‘protecting’, and yet many of our personal and collective experiences of care are oppressive, corrupted by power dynamics which render the receiver totally reliant and the giver all powerful. Various conceptualizations of care are therefore inevitably tied to experiences of trauma and suffering. Often care is the antidote but sometimes, it is the cause. A key focus of my practice is therefore to develop alternate languages with which to express experiences and effects of trauma.
 
Suffering is physical, it is psychological, it is personal, it is collective, and it is a promise.
 
However, by actively engaging in dialogue surrounding our own experiences of suffering, we can begin to personally and collectively understand, reclaim and make aesthetically significant, what was previously painful. My work is a part of this dialogue. Creating interactive installations, using film, sculpture and performance, my creative practice is motivated by a desire to manifest suffering as beautiful and sublime.
 
These manifestations are often both episodic and durational in nature, with individual works becoming part of a larger series of tableaus. Everything is drawn out, a story takes a year to tell, a conversation with my mother recreated for days, a single gesture held for hours. The spaces created are often modelled on institutional landscapes, spaces of care and management, but also of hierarchy and humiliation. The intricate design and staging are vital elements that evoke a feeling of uncanny.
 

Bibliography

Hattie Godfrey is a performance artist, writer and researcher. She graduated from Goldsmiths, University of London in BA (hons) Fine Art in 2018, receiving first class honours in both her theoretical and practical studies. Her practice endeavours to develop alternate languages for describing episodes of psychological and physical suffering. Working across installation, film, sculpture, performance and writing, Hattie uses her artistic practice to ‘unpack’ autobiographical and collective experiences until they are either fully understood or fully exhausted. What emerges is a surreal yet detailed catalog of human experience and emotion. In order to intensify her understanding of the psychological processes surrounding artistic interventions, healthcare and chronic illness she recently completed an Msc in Psychological Science at Queens University Belfast.
 
Collaboration is a crucial element of Hattie’s work. She has worked and performed with people and animals from various disciplines; recently she performed with moving image and performance artist Michelle Williams Gamaker. Collaboration has also taken the form of curation; as the Head of Curation for New Shoreditch Theatre and as a freelance curator she has curated a number of solo and group exhibitions.
 
Hattie is the co-founder and creative director of Figure This Life Drawing, a Belfast based life drawing company promoting body positivity, inclusiveness and explorative drawing for all experience levels. 

godfreyhattie@gmail.com
www.hattiegodfrey.com