MELISSA FOX
Artist Statement
A central focus of my practice is the interaction and emotional attachment to ecology and environment. The work offers brief encounters of fragility and precarity, loss, and discovery, of sculptural forms made to embody the natural world. I create ceramic sculptures incorporating fired and unfired clay, of natural forms and patterns which imitate an imaginary botanical environment. These forms are created from plaster moulds, then exposed to water, deforming, and altering the work overtime. With an interest in the fleeting moments of plant life, more specifically the cycle of growth and flourishing beauty, to the eventual decay and return to earth of flowers, leaves, and plants. Within my practice I define nature as all plants, flowers, leaves, and products of the earth not created by humans. The situation of the work creates multiple viewing positions, whereby the audience can interact from various angles. Inviting a closer inspection, where new forms and discoveries can be made.
Through these natural forms, the work intends to deepen emotional connections to the natural world. To increase an ecological awareness, which Philosopher Timothy Morton described across his work similar to action. Morton expresses how we should soften the idea of what action is, as there’s slight differences between awareness and action. As becoming aware of something, means you are in some sense within it[1]. Morton describes how the beauty and surrender experienced from art may influence a future of peaceful coexistence. The artwork investigates this claim, by aiming to enhance and create an appreciation of our environment. Bringing attention to the beauty and natural forms of the environment, in a way which promotes caring, understanding, and a peaceful coexistence. In the exhibition ‘Dear Earth’ (2023), Otobong Nkanga suggests caring is a form of resistance, and that appreciating and recognising the environment and its importance to our way of life is crucial[2]. As I observe our current climate, a time where our environment is arguably so fragile, I believe it is important to raise this awareness, and deepen our connections with nature.
Nkanga says extracting from a site is a connection to nature, which resonated with my process of making. The relief in the sprig moulds, creating the natural forms, come from real plants collected from my environment. Allowing the work to imitate and translate experiences of nature though new materials. Working with clay allows me to explore the ephemeral, as well as permanence of objects. By exposing unfired clay to water, the forms go through a state of metamorphosis, dissolving and decaying into a new form. Phoebe Cummings artwork and writing[3], made me question how the materiality of clay informs my practice. Investigating how fired and unfired clay challenges the narrative of life being fleeting and offers different lifespans to the work. Cummings highlights how clay is full of contradictions being organic and inorganic, extracted from the earth yet chemically complex, contorted by humans. Informing my practice in the way I push materials, forcing it through sieves, moulding and pressing it into fine, delicate, and ornate forms, often leaving behind my fingerprints like a mark of territory.
In ‘Holding Beauty’ (2023), decay and loss were explored through breaking ceramic sculptures. I then began to consider other ways of altering and deteriorating the work through less controlled methods. As the work evolved water became important, deteriorating, and altering the clay, and the sound, movement, and energy it created. Cristina Iglesias similarly uses water as a connection between the spectator and artwork. She explores how water acts as a symbol of how everything flows into each other. Within the work water becomes vital in how the forms transform and connect. The water colour alters over time because of the clay dissolving. Harriet Hellman’s exploration of time and its consideration of ecological fragility, resonated with my practice. Through a process of un-making, and transition, the unfired elements perform over time in unpredictable ways due to the water. A loss of the forms that existed, discovery of new creations, or remains.
‘Traces of what once was’ (2024), developed from ‘Ephemeral Permanence’ (2023), by the element of water moving from still, to kinetic. Forms dissolve into the water, which is then re-used, pumped back through the work. In a sense, creating an imaginary eco-system within the artwork.
The degree show piece will take forward the intention of bringing awareness, and emotional connections to the natural environment. Through a fountain of imaginary eco-systems, destructing and creating. Drawing attention to the forms lost, and new ones discovered.
[1] Jiménez de Cisneros, Roc. 2016. “Timothy Morton: Ecology without Nature.” CCCB LAB. December 13, 2016. https://lab.cccb.org/en/tim-morton-ecology-without-nature/. (Accessed: 29.04.2024)
[2] Nkanga Otobong, “Dear Earth.”, 21st – 3rd September 2023, Hayward Gallery, London, https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/art-exhibitions/dear-earth. (Accessed: 29.04.2024)
[3] Cummings, Phoebe. 2015. “A Co-Authored Geology.” Phoebe Cummings. 2015. http://www.phoebecummings.com/a-co-authored-geology. (Accessed: 29.04.2024)