My work focuses on an exploration of the inevitable - and already visible - degrading of our lived urban environment as we become increasingly overwhelmed by more extreme weather events; excessive heat, increased rainfall and high winds.
The urban environment; with ever taller sculpted buildings enjenders confidence and a sense of stability - effectively these building have become the new cathederals of our age.
What if our urban space, our most lived and populous environment, becomes ‘disrupted’, ‘fractured’, and is increasingly less inhabited as nature start to re-establish and assert itself. The consequences of the current environmental situation are so large, and the extent of our human agency seemingly so limited that we appear to be largely abdicating ourselves from any significant emotional (and practical) involvement in this struggle.
I am interested in how I can use clay and its intrinsic properties as a material at the heart of our environment and daily lived experience to question and explore how best to develop a more honest, open and urgent engagement with these issues.
The second theme is my approach to making. This has changed considerably over the past 12 months. I have tried hard to work much more ‘in the moment’ and respond in the moment to the material rather than having a pre imagined and fully formed template for the outcome. Through this approach I have explored clay surfaces and the multiple ways that disruption of that surface can be achieved.
I have used a range of clay bodies, slips, oxides and glazes as well as a number of additions to both the clay and also to the structure of the piece including granular feldspar, nichrome wire, plaster, slate and other materials. I have looked to use the clay surface as a way of exploring the history of ‘place’; the previous human connections and uses as well as the ‘natural’ processes of events beginning to reclaim that site.
My approach to making has changed considerably over the past. I try and work ‘in the moment’ and respond to the material rather than having a pre imagined and fully formed template for the outcome.
Through this approach I have explored clay surfaces and the multiple ways that disruption of that surface can be achieved. I have used a range of clay bodies, slips, oxides and glazes as well as a number of additions to both the clay and also to the structure of the piece including granular feldspar, nichrome wire, plaster, slate and other materials.