Unearthed

Unearthed in Unfamiliar Ground at the Anke Buchmann Atelier & Showroom 4-14th October 2023

‘Breathing life into clay and clay into life’ – has become my definition of animation.  I have become fascinated with the soil that is at the root of the ceramic discipline, enchanted by the truly overwhelming richness of life beneath our feet.  I celebrate that abundance here with Unearthed a project that zooms us down and focuses in on the choreography of ever-more tiny beings that inhabit the soil, a largely unknown place that holds one of the keys to life on earth.

Playing with scale, I magnify our view and our sense of soil’s significance. Whimsical characters – inspired by worms, bugs, fungal mycelium, soil bacteria and microbes – emerge as a celebration of life, dancing out of the imagination. No matter how tiny, each plays a spirited role, emphatically declaring their existence, their uniqueness. 

There is an alchemy in this practice too. I capture the evolving forms in thousands of individual photographic images which I weave into a narrative film. By kiln-firing them at the end of the shoot, the ceramic sculptures are transfixed as though in suspended animation, specimens captured for closer inspection. 

“We can’t cherish what we don’t know. And if we are to Save Our Soil we must take a closer look at what is often dismissed as ‘dirt’ and realise our lives depend on its aliveness.”  

Unearthed was exhibited in Unfamiliar Ground, a two-artist show with Stephanie Buttle at the Anke Buchmann Atelier and Showroom, in Berlin, in October 2023.