A HOME FOR LOST THINGS
In my creative practice, I have explored the body through drawing and the sculptural medium, unpacking notions of how we host our lived experiences within us, along with what it means to find a ‘home’ outside of the body. ‘Home’ can be more than a physical place, it can be a feeling, a smell, a loved one’s voice, something that can be ugly or deformed, or in the process of decay. It is not always tangible and therefore in evoking this, my practice depicts a contorted mass of material and figure, sifting through these associations to open out themes of rebirth and decay.
Broken and discarded furniture, seemingly transitioning objects that no longer function in terms of their original purpose, lost things, wobbly things, broken charcoal, smeared plaster on paper and fabric, glue with twine, and chicken wire, winding and binding into each other to be together, to hold and to be held.
Using found materials and offcuts the sculptural body becomes one that maintains its own narrative—something anthropomorphic and at the mercy of change. It is a body in the sense that it is a home that is made of collected experiences and artifacts forming as ‘things’ that have been repurposed and given a new life.
The ‘sculptural body’ has stitched itself back together and purged illness and bacteria.
It has undergone a constant metamorphosis as fragile materials like plaster and paper are utilised for their ability to deteriorate.
In my practice, I have constructed creatures in the sculptural and drawing plane that have been transformed beyond their origin into a form that may in some sense feel familiar. It may even echo your body through its ability to heal and to be held by others.
