MLitt Fine Art Practice School of Fine Art
June Barton
June Barton is a Glasgow-based artist whose work predominantly focuses on screen printing. Through her practice, she explores the concept of grief concerning the ever-changing landscape of our world today. Her deeply emotive pieces reflect the tumultuous effects of loss and the complex emotions it evokes. Utilising elements of film, sculpture, and collage, Barton’s pieces provide a poignant commentary on the human experience and the fragility of our existence. Through the intricacy of her screen printing technique, she captures the delicate balance between beauty and tragedy, inviting viewers to contemplate the fragility of the human condition and the power of art to evoke introspection and empathy.
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Where Olive Trees Weep
“Sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt.” Translation: “There are tears of/for things and mortal things touch the mind.” Virgil, The Aeneid.
For this project, I researched images, websites, news, and videos documenting the devastating effects of the Gaza/Israel conflict. Many images are screenshots from the film Where Olive Trees Weep. Additionally, I included poems by Palestinian poets, drawing on Mosab Abu Toha’s collection “Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear” (2022).
Number 23 White Rabbit
For this project, I chose the number 23 and a glass ornament white rabbit as they both hold significance for my son, Ross, and me. The number 23 represents his birthday, and the glass rabbit is the first present he bought me. Number 23 symbolises the Greek goddess Eris of strife, stress, and chaos, who, in mythology, is said to have started the Trojan War by throwing the golden apple of discord. The rabbit symbolises motherhood; I chose the white rabbit in “Alice in Wonderland” to represent me when Ross was alive, working too much and always running late.
I dressed as Eris with collaged wings and a paper-mâché golden apple, then as a rabbit in my funeral coat and Ross’s rabbit mask. I collaborated with photography student Lin Zi Wei, whose photos I edited to create screen prints.
Untitled
This project expanded on the Eris and White Rabbit theme, focusing on visiting cemeteries to research an aesthetics essay on Deathscapes. Eva Hewitt, my studio colleague, portrayed Eris; we photographed and filmed in the green room, engaging in spontaneous dance with props. I used Photoshop to manipulate the images, incorporating them with gravestones and cemetery shapes to try and capture the atmosphere experienced during my cemetery visits.
The goal was to evoke a sense of death and dying while moving towards a war theme.
