MARY ROUNCEFIELD

 

I have a degree in Illustration from the University of the West of England passed with honours and a  II(i)  in 2009. Most recently, I have exhibited work with Guerilla galleries in London in 2014, and at the Old Baths in
Hackney Wick in 2015. My work featured  in two exhibitions at the Royal West of England Academy in 2013; with animal screen prints in ‘Riegning Cats and Dogs’ and  a textile sculpture in ‘Drawn’. In 2007, while still a student, I was short listed for the Jerwood Drawing Prize. Other exhibitions include, the
7th International Mini Print Exhibition organised by the Printmakers’ Council (2009), the Royal West of England Academy Autumn Exhibition in 2009 and 2012, and  the Wrexham Print International in 2011.
During 2012. I have exhibited print work in New York at the Noble Maritime Collection, on the BBC News Website and in Riga with Offorte Gilde

 

Two of the most worrying aspects of modern life are the anonymity of the individual, and the tendency of those individuals to 'mind their own business'. As a result, it is easy for people to be trafficked and kept in isolation; forced to work in for little or no payment as sweat-shop workers, domestic help, farm workers or
sex workers. In addition, we also import clothing, food and consumer goods made in countries where cheap labour can be exploited. This has prompted me to make a series of drawings on that theme of Exploitation. I have used 'bar codes' as a symbol of the fact that people are being bought and sold as a commodity. The
bar code also has the appearance of prison bars representing the lack of liberty and choice. To me the Riddle of the Sphinx is: Must civilisation and prosperity be always founded on the exploitation of others?