Alter

Making the works for Alter was a considered process that unfolded over the course of the year. The works were made through a dialogue between physical effort, time and material. The physical act of making and the time it takes to do so are central to my working process. Time plays a role that cannot be underestimated; time to think, time to focus, time to make. The time required by the process of working with the material allows space in my process for the artwork to develop, evolve and become concrete. 

A language of structured forms run throughout my practice. Towers, grids, columns, walls, stairs, fences, bridges; forms that offer multiple meanings and possibilities. Does a tower represent aspiration or isolation? Does a stair symbolise an ascent or descent? I am deeply interested in the threshold or liminal spaces between these dualities and that many of these archetypal forms have a diversity of symbolic and metaphoric meanings. Whilst each of the sculptures is small in scale, there are many of them. As a field, the objects occupy significant space. Alter explores this scale shift. 

The use of colour works to underpin the intention that the Alter artworks are touched and experienced. Through a process of reflection and imagination, each time the work is re-arranged, the viewer creates their own, unique version of how the work will appear and be experienced in that moment. Colour brings delight and joy and the desire to touch. Colour for me is also a means to visually represent light. The spectrum of colour from pale off-white or lemon yellow through to deep olive green, iron red and blackened bronze and all the tonal shifts that sit within each have been developed over many months for Alter. 

Each of the 280 sculptures was made through direct engagement with clay. The medium allows an immediate response – it will take any form and hold any mark you chose to make. For Alter, different clay bodies with specific characteristics are rolled into slabs of varying thicknesses. Each sculpture was made through a process of then adding and removing clay. Clay is a consistent material in my practice. It is at once an immovable, weighted presence and yet it is also soft, open and light, willing to transform at the slightest touch. There is a transformative mystery to the mixing of material, chemistry, extreme temperature, time and chance; all are factors in realising the final works.