Material Presence: A Domestic Scene

2018

Each poem, each piece remembers us perfectly
The way the earth remembers our bodies,
The way man and woman in their joining
Remember each other before they were separate.

Anne Michaels

In July 2016 I was successful in gaining an Arts Council of Wales production grant, for a project, partnered by Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre, entitled ‘Domestic Landscapes’. This grant has provided opportunity for me to develop new work for my first solo exhibition to open at Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre in March 2018.

The intention for this work is to create a poignant and sensual body of work that forms around themes of longing, still life and the landscape of the domestic. The work will be presented as a three-dimensional still life and will bring together porcelain with American black walnut.

The grant will enable me to integrate processes and ideas developed through two previous research projects – training in plaster model and mould making with Sasha Wardell (supported by Arts Council of Wales) and an artist residency with Makers Using Technology. The significance of the crafted object within my practise began through the development of plaster working skills learnt in Sasha Wardell’s workshops; and the residency with Makers Using Technology has been significant in introducing digital technologies to my practise.

I will be working in partnership with the Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) endorsed FabLab. FabLab provides access to state of the art digital technologies with expert technical support. Specifically I will have access to large scale CNC milling technologies and 3D scanning technology.

This project will explore themes of longing and the in-between – conditions that lie at the heart of what it means to be human – with the intention of making tangible those fundamental human experiences that otherwise remain imperceptible to us.