View information about the artist by hovering over the image with your cursor.
Navigate through the gallery by clicking to the left or right of the image.

Name: Natalie Crick

School: Durham High School for Girls

Town: Durham

County: Durham

Year: Year 13

Inspiration: Much of my work is often informed by current issues in society, such as the rising incidence of eating disorders among females in western society. Photography is my preferred medium but I also work in watercolour and acrylic paint and enjoy creating short documentary-style and surrealist film. A diverse variety of film, such as ‘Down in Law’ (Jim Jarmusch) and ‘Innocence’ (Lucile Hadzihalilovic), has provided much influence for my work; the subtle horror conveyed in ‘Picnic At Hanging Rock’ (Peter Weir), for example, inspired the dreamy, trance-like quality of the my eating-disorder themed work, along with the stark white colour scheme. Artistic inspiration ranges from the contemporary, visually disturbing work of Ray Caesar, to the carnivalesque imagery of 19th century painter James Ensor, while Francis Bacon and Peter Doig provide relentless ideas. I also often derive ideas for compositions from literature, such as ‘The Cement Garden’ by Ian McEwan and Beryl Bainbridge’s novels. However, the fabulous, and slightly sinister, children’s cartoon ‘The Moomins’ has probably provided the most stimulus, and has become a life-long obsession…

Title: Meltdown

Description: Finally the girl allows herself to gorge on the cakes and cherries; the question mark over the identity of the crimson liquid (cherry juice or blood?) combined with the girl’s agitated grin and the crudely bright colouring of the fruit and cakes give this image a slightly subversive edge. This reflects on the tainted relief of the secretive bingeing sessions many eating disorder sufferers carry out.

Medium: Photography

Width: 750 Height: 620

Keywords: Eating disorders, hysteria, gluttony, bingeing, indulgence