“Bodies are not stable preformed entities, they are always extending beyond themselves…’. (1) Both the body and the artwork are subject to tensions between what is bounded and what lies outside, the autonomous individual body or artwork and the complex relations within which they both produced and unravelled. Like bodies, Samantha Donnelly’s sculptures are always in process and always subject to change; new elements area added to existing pieces, leaving open the possibility for different articulations, alterations, decay and dissolution. Traditional media such as wax and plaster are combined with archive images, familiar images from popular culture and advertising and manufactured “everyday” objects. This practice disrupts the conventional boundaries of the artwork, and what is understood as the drive towards medium specificity characteristic of modernism (2), that which would, for example, separate sculpture from photography.’
(1) Mike Featherstone, “Body Image and Affect in Consumer Culture” in Body and Society, Vol.16 No.1 2010, p.205
(2) Rosalind E. Krauss and Yve-Alain Bois (1997) Formless, A Users Guide New York: Zone, p.25
Excerpt of text by Dr Celia Jameson, published in ‘The Shape We’re In’ exhibition catalogue, Zabludowicz Collection, 2011
Graduated with a First Class Honours Degree in Contemporary Crafts, from University College Falmouth in 2010, specialising in kiln formed glass and metalwork. Using a lost wax and core casting techniques, I then transfer this method on to investment casting using a variety of metals. I produce both static and kinetic sculpture influenced by biological scientific developments, advancing technologies and the raw materials we exploit from deep within the Earth. The inventions take the form of a hybrid species; which can move, are magnetic, and interchangeable.
My work explores the notions of memory and identity and their representation in the medium of glass. Some are an externalization of my own personal memory whilst others depict communicative and collective memory in order to discuss and demonstrate the crucial role memory plays in the construction and constitution of both national and personal identity.
One element of this exploration represents the preservation of memories in cast glass through the use of negative space. I love moulds. The combination of perfectly fitting parts that combine to form an exterior shape and an interior of negative space is fascinating. My on-going desire to see the insides of a finished multi-part cast plaster mould with its locating keys evoked the idea of casting the moulds themselves in glass. In these the object is absent but the glass walls and negative spaces replicate every detail of its form and texture, thereby preserving its memory and defining qualities indefinitely. The negative space is the memory of the object and utilizes the ability of glass to carry positive and negative information simultaneously. This combination allows the examination of image in conjunction with form, light in relation to shape, the designation of negative space by its immediate environment, presence with absence, and tangibility with memory.
Another aspect of my investigation is one that seeks to activate the viewer’s memory. The work resulting from this investigation perceives personal and national identity as a collection of memories where each memory is another stratum in the consolidation of a solid and persistent personality. Personal memory is fundamental to our sense of self and marks the importance of memory as the foundation of our own identity.
Kate Hobby
I am very fortunate that my first brush with glass was during my foundation course at Oxfordshire ten years ago. We were given a unique opportunity to work with a glass artist and explore both fused and cast glass. I was captivated by both the process and the materials, and set out to find a BA that would allow me to make sculpture using cast glass. A quest which I reluctantly set aside as I was encouraged to focus on finding a course that was strong in sculpture as a whole. Happily I went on to discover other cast materials and an insatiable appetite for understanding all forms of mould making.
Cast metals have become integral to my practice over the past few years. While I work both in iron and bronze I find that a third material always enters the narrative. This third material has predominantly been slag, a glass like by product of cupola iron. It has become an important and recurring narrative partner to iron but I have struggled with its limitations, as it is very brittle and often inconsistent in quality. I am excited by the prospect of working with glass, which holds similar aesthetic qualities to slag.
Graduated this summer from Edinburgh College of Art with a degree in Sculpture using casting as my principle process.
My body of work so far has developed based on an interest in forms and textures that cannot be easily identified and categorised. I develop processes of solidifying distortions and reflections of objects familiar to us, giving them an alternative, opposite existence. I am interested in creating objects and environments that displace the viewer and suggest an alternative space or world. For this reason, Science Fiction, the ideas and philosophies it communicates, has proved to be a strong influence.
Since graduating from Edinburgh College of Art in 2009 I have developed my practice from a base in London. Dealing with the initial shock of my relocation I found myself attracted to the familiar in my new environment. I found familiarity curious as it was largely born of the mediated images I had experienced through television, film and literature – thus my cognitive map was developed out of this ‘cinematic’, a prior knowledge. Negotiating these fictions I began to develop work that was based around this process.
I was lucky enough to spend some time in Utah as an Artist in Residence with the Centre for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI); through this experience I met with Matt Coolidge and developed a very personal understanding of cognitive dissonance.
It is this realisation that I would like to pursue in the environment surrounding the Scottish Sculpture Workshop during my 3 week stay.
Having received my Master of Fine Art degree from Indiana University in 2010, this Ceramic Graduate Residency at SSW is an opportunity to develop my artistic practice, having access to facilities and creative exchange.
My work investigates environmental destruction and our relationship, emotional and physical, to its effects. I strive to express a feeling of sickness, injury, deformation, and disconnection with the natural world. My sculptures are autobiographical embodiments of my own intense frustration and anger while simultaneously acting as vehicles for illustrating our indelible connection to the natural world. I see my mission as giving my tree forms their own voice with which to declare their symbolic demise. In doing this I draw a connection between the health of the environment and the health of ourselves, for we are inexorably linked.
I have been researching particularly large and/or ancient trees as references for my sculptures in form and surface. I am specifically interested in Europe because I have been following the findings of The Woodland Trust which maps and protects ancient trees throughout the UK.
An artist interested in arts potential to act as a catalyst for political and social transformation (I’m not saying it can but I’m interested in finding out). I completed a MA in Contemporary Art Theory at Edinburgh College of Art and have been commissioned by the likes of Edinburgh International Arts Festival, Big Things on the Beach and Deveron Arts to run projects in the social realm.
In 2009 and for two years I set up and co-directed Glasgow based artist run space ten til ten. and worked as a community radio presenter; researching, producing and presenting a dynamic arts based talk show.
I currently run the research project, Artachat. Based on the model of a radio talk show, Artachat utilises social technologies and face-to-face discussions to create new, inclusive dialogues between artists and audiences.
A 24 year old from Preston in Lancashire, I have been involved in community radio since 2005, working my way up to managing radio station Plus Spark Fm whilst studying a foundation degree in community radio. Since passing this in 2010, I have gone on to be selected as part of Vinspired (Young people volunteer service in Britain) and am also part of the BBC talent pool.
Laura Duncan
