16 September 2004
BBC Nottingham
Ellie Harrison spent a year recording her sneezes and has turned her data into an exhibition at the YAH festival. I thought we needed to know more…
The Nottingham You Are Here Festival is getting closer and closer.
I’ve managed to grab a short chat with Ellie Harrison, an artist who will be exhibiting her work at the festival.
Ellie is originally from London but studied Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University and has done lots of interesting stuff in the name of art.
What was your first major art piece you did?
My first big piece was Eat 22 where I took I picture of everything I ate from the age of 22 to 23. It was my first year project.
What inspired you to record your sneezes?
I was doing a project where I recorded everything for a year. I’d weigh myself, how many steps I’d taken, who I spoke to, how many texts I received and even how many times I swore. Sneezes were just another thing I was recording at the time.
Was it difficult?
No. I had a big file which I recorded everything in. I’d just write it down.
It was a lot easier recording sneezes than photographing everything I ate for a year.
What will your exhibition involve?
There’s going to be a giant timeline in the Wallner Gallery at the Lakeside – each wall is going to represent a month and the day and times of each sneeze are going to represented by a coloured sticker, which will placed in specific position on the wall.
What would be your advice for young budding artists?
What’s worked for me is just to keep going. Keep on at what you do. That’s what I do and it’s worked for me.
Ellie’s exhibition sound very wacky and weird and should be very interesting.
Her exhibition will launch on Wednesday, 29th of September at the Lakeside Arts Centre at the University of Nottingham.
It will be available until the Sunday 7th of November. If you want to know more about Ellie Harrison visit www.ellieharrison.com.