Troy Holmes
Info
Get in touch via email : troyholmes4@gmail.com
I was born in Cambridge in 1991, and I graduated in Sculpture and History of Art (MA Fine Art) at Edinburgh College of Art in June 2016. I am interested in the vacancy of glamour, and the concept of taste. I use mimicry, playfulness and pastiche to gently critique the aspirational, impossible image of glamour. I am far more interested in the façade than what is underneath. For me it’s the aspiration and the fantasy rather than the reality that excites me. My work centers around the roles that gender norms play in sexuality. I explore the theatricality of 'acting out' gendered stereotypes and construct characters and scenarios that both excite and kind of disturb me based on these ideas.
I love women like Kim Kardashian, people who weave a tale thick with sex and glamour; they present a lie to the world, a lie so many try to live up to. And yet, we all fail. Because it was always a lie, it was never a reality, even for Kim. I want to explore that line between the failure of reality and the sexiness of the fantastic lie. There’s something fascinating in the tease, like when a website takes what feels like forever to load, and you feel that potent pang of frustration. I love the power that comes from the reveal. It’s the knowledge that no one wants to get caught looking too long at my images that I find incredibly enticing.
I like to describe my works as ‘textured sexualities’. I use textures to understand the process of material sexualisation. It’s about examining how we can sexualize almost anything, and how that objectification takes place. From a purely formal perspective too, the objectification or elevation of a material through association is highly important to my work.
Selected Exhibitions:
- May/June 2016: ECA Degree Show 2016
- March 2016: Sexy Things, ECA
- March 2016: Bookmarks Artist’s Book and Zine Fair, ECA
- March 2016: Sex and Death and Sex and Death, Sculpture court, ECA
- February 2016: Pointy, Jabby, Stabby Things, Sculpture court, ECA
- January 2016: sorry I had a seminar, Sculpture court, ECA
- October 2015: Plush Skin, Edinburgh College of Art
- June 2015: Entente, Hotel Elephant, London
- April 2015: Subject to change, Space Club, Edinburgh
- March 2015: I think this film is about you, Bongo club, Edinburgh
- March 2015: Kara-ok?, Minto House, Edinburgh
- November 2014: Transition: a narrative across borders, Studio RCA, London
- February 2014: Xchange, Edinburgh College of Art
- November 2013: Dessert Party, SUNY Purchase College, New York
- March 2013: Fella-Ciao, Sculpture Court at Edinburgh College of Art
- February 2013: Mintohouse, Minto House, Edinburgh
- February 2013: Be My Valentine, Edinburgh College of Art
- January 2013: Breathe, Edinburgh College of Art
- January 2013: Down the pub, Beehive Inn, Edinburgh
- November 2012: OBJECTIVE/SUBJECTIVE, Edinburgh College of Art
- April 2012: The end of the beginning, Edinburgh College of Art
- January 2012: Headroom, Minto House, Edinburgh
- December 2011: First, Edinburgh College of Art
- April 2011: Endings, Cambridge Regional College
- February 2011: Stairs of Maude Chumbley, The Shop, Cambridge
- March 2010: Troy Holmes, Westleton Gallery, Suffolk
- January 2010: Get Hung II, The Shop, Cambridge
- July 2009: Get Hung, The Shop, Cambridge
Awards/Prizes
- March 2016: Runner-up winner for the Astaire Art Prize 2016
- March 2016: Outstanding Elected Representatives EUSA Impact Award
- July 2015: Awarded the Principles Go Abroad fund for research trip to New York
- April 2014: St. Andrew’s First Aid Training course – fully qualified first aider for 3 years
- October – November 2014: CodeFirst Girls Academy: HTML, CSS and JavaScript course
- September 2014: Edinburgh Award (for Emply.ed Internship summer 2014)
- June 2013: Awarded the Aranmore Memorial Travelling Scholarship to travel to Rome
Education
- First class honours in MA Fine Art from Edinburgh College of Art
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