Jane Edden

Jane Edden is another British artist whose work I admire. Using a wide variety of different materials to explore nature and culture, she is particularly fascinated with the ways in which animals are studied and collected – something that chimes with my interest in Victorian insect and animal collections.

Her work focuses around the themes of movement and flight, light and sound. Bird flight, and the mechanics behind it, have been central to lots of her work. The Hornimam Museum recently exhibited three of her pieces, in which she explores folklore and myths involving human flight. These myths occur across many different cultures. Each of the sculptures in this exhibit were assembled with hundreds of feathers: the resulting pieces are beautiful and thought-provoking.

In her film A Coat For Icarus, she creates a mirrored, feathered image that morphs into a throbbing heart shape, set to a beating heart soundtrack. Looking closely, the shape of a swan becomes evident: it’s elegant neck and large, curved wings moving as it preens its feathers. You can see a short clip of the work on YouTube

And if you’d like to see more of her work, you can take a look at the Flowers Gallery website.