Hot days by the lake, fallen cliff clay, hundred of maple leaf keys saved and sorted. Forms observed. Clay rehydrated, used to adhere keys to form.
Thinking of nature and its unending gifts.
The Shape of Longing
Slip cast paper-clay bowls with slip cast elements of nature (bones, feathers, seaweed, moss, insects, shells etc)
113 pieces, each 8 – 15 cm
Curiosity, delight and a pensive hush filled the gallery room while for many the desire to touch the pieces was substantial. In this piece, what appears to be lost is actually simply transitioned, and what is recognizable lays in perfect quietude held gently within the bowls, ranging from elegant to broken down.
One paper-clay slip cast vessel containing a slip cast flower began an experiment to see if something delicate and natural could survive the thousand degree temperature of a kiln firing. The Shape of Longing became an ongoing project of discovery coupled with a formulated desire to record and save elements of my surroundings and recent experiences. To make precious the small intricacies and to ultimately draw an audience in to look closely, to consider, to question, and to be hyper aware of the fragility of what was before them turned my insular investigation into a exquisite shared experience.
Braving the Anthropocene: Air, Fire, Earth, Ether & Water
Reclaimed sports helmets with found natural elements such as pheasant feathers, branches, dragonfly, beech seed pods, burnt wood & ashes, flies, paperclay branches, discarded bird nest section, shuttle cock feathers
Sizes variable
Thinking of the climate crisis, and of our disappearing environment, presenting questions about tenacity, fragility, resilience and beauty. Thinking of the human attempt to act as guardians.
Thinking of respect and honouring the land.
Thinking of both hope and fear for the future; thinking of the confluence of man-made with nature.
Thinking of how these helmets, each representing an element: Air, Fire, Earth, Ether and Water, represent the intertwining with natural worlds around us, the battle for ourselves and for our survival.
Taxidermy pigeon, 280+ hand-built paper clay branches, discarded fishing net
260 x 108 x 58 cm
Creating hundreds of paper clay, oxide stained branches to waive into the discarded fishing net extends the visual story of the pigeon from being simply in flight to one of rescue or relief. To what end have these branches been collected? While they are symbolic of nature as a whole, they also represent the cycle of gathering materials with which to create a home.
There is a tension between the branches that are suspended being carried away on a mission, and those left trailing in a precarious position on the gallery floor close to the footsteps and actions of the gallery audience. I am interested in this interactive narrative which mirrors life, the audience holding the potential for contrasting roles as the observer, caretaker and destroyer.
While the word could signify the animal kingdom, the hand-built branches, ranging in colour from a dark charcoal grey to almost white, represent the struggles of the natural environment on both land and sea (forest fires and coral bleaching). Emotions stemming from this piece range from hope to vulnerability, affording the viewer an intimate reflective moment in the current climate crisis.
Sculptural installation | Cut, found wood, fishing line
Private commission | Sunshine Coast, British Columbia, Canada
Ongoing series Other Ways to Find Home | 2017/8
Silver wire, twin pine needles | 13″ x 4.5″ x 3.5″/ 33 x 11.4 x 8.9 cm
Desire Line | 52 hand sewn boats from discarded moving blankets
1 lost wax bronze boat | 2016
First iteration | Desire Line at Back Lane West Cornwall UK | 2016
Second iteration | Desire Line, in situ at Ranger Station Art Gallery, BC | 2016
An interview by Jo McCallum from the Tender to the Sea catalogue.
JM ~ Clearly the scale of the small boat in Endangered 101 is now influencing your further, current work. Is that because of the emotional response people had?
SH ~ Consciously, I don’t think so, but possibly on another level. These boats that I’m sewing out of moving blankets evolved naturally, once again, by using the materials I had. I saw two moving blankets left by the side of the road after a couple was forcefully removed from their flat across from my studio. They stayed clumped up there for almost a week. I kept thinking about those people, and of the blankets…the colour, texture and the story they were connected to. The history of the event -of being left outside, soaked with rain and dirt -remains in the material itself. Discarded as often humans are. I saw a potential to make something interesting, to attempt to imbue the objects with history. In contrast to the event, there evolves a preciousness by creating small and intimate objects.
JM ~ The handheld aspect?
SH ~ Yes. While there is an obvious absence of any human presence, the human element is represented in the scale. The small boats are the scale of the hands and the large boat [Tender to the Sea, tea bag boat] is the scale of the body. When we see objects in groups we can tend to anthropomorphize them, to see them as people and in that sense these boats represent so much in a societal context.
JM ~ Are you referring to the migrant crisis?
SH ~ Yes, not politically but from a feeling of helplessness. Of feeling that the things I make, this job I do does not accomplish anything toward helping the pressing issues of our time. There is a sense of internal anguish that comes with working in my studio toward the single purpose of making art. Perhaps there’s something in the handsewing that works through that frustration.
JM ~ You do enjoy stories. Are you interested in folk tales?
SH ~ Very much so. I love looking at situations symbolically, and as tools for interpretation as much as I enjoy the reading, watching and telling of stories. In this case, the little boats can be seen to represent society following the bronze boat. It is in the lead but also in a state of decay. It is valued and singular but in decline. No longer seaworthy.
JM ~ In a way, your work is so much about the telling of stories…
SH ~ That’s it exactly, and I hope this translates to those seeing the work.
Tender to the Sea | 2015
1075 used tea bags, 3mm steel rods, used tea, 600 metres thread |224 x 130 x 46 cm | 88″ x 51″ x 18″
Endangered 101 with Row the Boat Out drawings | In situ at Ranger Station Art Gallery | September 2016 (above)
Endangered 101 | In situ at Back Lane West artist residency | January 2016
Endangered 101 | Raw, unfired clay, silver wire, fabric (one-hundred & one pieces) |
In situ at Lamorva House (Woodlane Campus, Falmouth University) |
Second iteration (above)
First iteration | In situ at Lamorva House, Falmouth University, Cornwall, UK | 2015
Evolution Sculptures | 2013 | Plywood, branches, felt, graphite, fabric, cat fur | between 20-54″ x 16-30″ |
Elissa Cristall Gallery, Vancouver, Canada | 2013
The Space between Here & Then (72″ x 21″ x 8″) with Some of What Totem (78″ x 52″) | In situ at Ranger Station Art Gallery | Harrison Hot Springs, Canada | 2013