| Project title: | Surface Tension |
| Location: | One Paved Court, Richmond, London, UK |
| Date(s): | 28 June – 16 July 2023 |
Artists Statement
I am a ceramic artist. My work demonstrates my desire to tell the story of our landscape and the way that we relate to it: the behaviours of man during the geological epoch now known as the Anthropocene. I am interested in the simplicity of form, creating experimental work, and often using unglazed clay.
I start my unique, fragile pieces from pure porcelain with connotations of beauty, value and fragility to which I add found materials and images. I delight in experimenting and in taking risks, striving for ever thinner work which only reveals its full nature on closer inspection. Work is high fired to bring out the translucence of the porcelain and to flux or burn any inclusions. This causes pressure within the piece and results in distortions, craters, blisters and exploding splinters of rock, the impacts of which appear as points of tension.
A sense of place is important to me, and my work often includes found materials and images which tell the story of a location. Works are installed in gallery spaces but also, because of these concerns for place, in sites beyond formal gallery such as museums and alternative spaces.
Surface Tension: About the Project
This project was a highly experimental exploration of clay, pushing fragility to the limits of my imagination whilst focusing on metaphors within porcelain: beauty, fragility and value. The intention was to create fragile surfaces which were both site responsive and site specific. Work investigated new processes such as lithography which added to the narrative and incorporated materials from Blacknest Fields, a rewilding site. This conveyed a sense of place and created tension within the surface of sculptures. It also explored the materiality and history of the gallery’s origins, a former a carpet shop which is the oldest building in the street, incorporating brick dust, blown seeds and feathers swept from the floor.
The culmination of the project was an exhibition in London from June 28th until July 16th, 2023. Public engagement included a private view and an afternoon discussion. Additional pages featuring the work, including a recording of a 45-minute discussion in the Gallery, were also added to my website.
The question I wished to address was:
‘How can the precarious interdependence between the human and non-human world be conveyed through the creation of fragile sculptural installations using porcelain and found materials?’
I see my role as raising awareness and facilitating positive experiences of the existential threats to nature: Art sanctioning discussion without apportioning blame. I want my work to resonate with the viewer, prompt memories and instigate change: inviting them to consider the risks that our behaviours pose to the natural world.
My strategy was to give my audience a sense of place, exploring the gallery’s history using underlay and wool for mounting work, and invite optimism for the natural world through a positive encounter with installations referencing species relevant to the rewilding project.
Clay implies renewal. Staubach describes it as the Earth’s most primal element (2005). Using clay from Blacknest Fields grounded the project within a narrative of sustainability: optimistic people exploring how to not only stay with the trouble (Haraway) but attempting to reverse its impact. The use of plaster moulds to form work was inspired by the ethereal sculptures of Maria Bartuszova Titles of the work extended the story.
Collaboration was threefold. The exhibition and the public engagement involved close collaboration with the gallery owners. Artist and lecturer, Anna Bingham, led a public discussion about my context, methodology and methods. The work around Blacknest Fields involved collaboration with Alton Natural History Society (ANHS), particularly Cathy Wilson, botanist and Chair of the Society. Her approach, after seeing my exhibition, Lepidoptera, was the genesis of the project.
For more information
please see my website