I use a variety of materials within my practice, to explore possibilities and examine extremeties. At its heart there is a continual act of play where I am manipulating and experimenting, pulling together a series of dispirate fragments to see what works and allowing chance and surprise to offer new lines of enquiry. I am constantly finding ways to reuse what has been made, either from my own physical making or through the use of found objects. I collect waste left by others and forgotten, discarded things. All of this becomes material for future projects and experiments.
[drop down for more details on the projects and collections below]
Conversational Ceramics, 2014
A collection of slip-cast porcelain vessels which were made using hand-sewn cellulose cloth moulds. Each mould was altered through additional hand-stitching, after each cast was made, and was re-used to the point that the cloth felt apart and the mould became unusable. The moulds themselves became their own objects at this stage, having been spent of their original purpose. They still speak to the ceramic objects they helped inform however, and the marks left from the surface of the cloth—as well as the stitching itself—creates a rythmic dialogue between the collection. The addition of alternative glazing techniques offers a playfulness and readability across the collection as well as highlighting the surfaces of decay that have altered and developed over time.
Altering Books, 2004
Experimental sculptures using secondhand books as an active ‘material’. Through acts of manipulation such as water drenching, binding and painting, the addition of found objects allow this collection to speak of interruption, juxtaposition and an act of mis/translation.
deborahjparkes 