1.dorothy, collage 150x105 cm    2.red riding hood, collage 150x115 cm   3.snow white, collage 150x120 cm   4.cinderella, collage 150x105 cm   5.wonder woman, collage 130x215 cm   6.harley quinn, collage 150x165 cm  

Agatha Whitechapel Artist Statement

I was born in London, England and left school at 15, moving to Vienna, Austria to become a photographers assistant before moving into film production. I continued to work on my collages, increasing image complexity and size. I currently only work with life size images and reduce print size. I investigate themes to produce series.

My work became known and I was asked to collaborate on an exhibition show with two Viennese clothes designers, Schella Kann, where I collaged their entire collection. This led to my current theme “Fairytales” – my biggest challenge yet.

Fairytales express our true preoccupations, fears and desires, however bizarre or impossible the imagined events embodying them.

My collages provide an alternative route to traditional tales, returning to the original, cautionary sentiments. The series represents aspects of my life told through familiar visual personalities and arranged in new, conceptually layered pieces Whitechapel Tales! Each collage has 200-700 single photographs, uses natural light, specific colour styling, and fabrication of the originally photographed scene.

My work takes a critical view of the social issues woven into current societal childhood and adult culture using myth and fantasy references, and I create character designs specific to both the fable and the person I am portraying.

I focus on female characters, using a documentary style approach within heavily styled scenes involving struggle; young and single parenting, phobia and the juxtaposition of feminine ideology in current times.

I draw inspiration from the people around me and my experiences living and working within mixed cultures; I Attempt to display the fantasy as the real life and that in dealing with lifes problems, these tales are both suggestive of solutions and revealing of life and human nature.

I am currently working on completing the series and you can see more of my work here: http://www.agathawhitechapel.com