Klotz, Spaceman, Gebilde and Baumhaus/Neonberg

I was one of 3 artists in this group show, with the painters Mari Eastman and Maaike Schoorel. I showed 3 pieces of new work, 'Klotz, Spaceman and Gebilde' (2005) and one earlier piece, 'Baumhaus / Neonberg' (2004), because Maureen Paley, who had bought it from my first exhibition at BQ Gallery in Cologne, wanted to include it.

'Gebilde', 'Baumhaus/Neonberg', was primarily made from knitted wool and twigs; 'Klotz' used clay and a patchwork of different types of fabric. Surreal and artificial elements came from the open-pored texture of the knitted wool, the crochet, and the use of fabrics to suggest the illusion of a 'hidden' or micro-world within the materials which one can zoom into. 'Space man' was a twig dressed in a padded silver space suit made-to-measure complete with press buttons, proper pockets, a hood and a belt.

Although I often use vernacular materials and forms, craft itself is not important, despite the contingent and hand-made aspect of much of my work, except as evidence of natural processes of selection and thinking. I am interested in the haptic as part of my process. The work I showed here evidences the hybridity and contingency of my practice which brings together organic and inorganic elements to make small sculptures that are intentionally fragile and tenuous; they often seem ‘barely there’ in the way they juxtapose poor materials to evoke both pathos and humanity.