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Artist Statement

The pieces of work entitled Coral I and Coral II came about as a result of a period of experimentation with materials and processes in sculpture.

We all have in our possession, items and materials that we no longer use. A desire to reuse something that was no longer used became the impetus for this piece.

The piece Untitled (Stairs with Cement Towel) 2007 by Paul Lee inspired the creation of this body of work.

Old Towels that had seen better days became the material of choice and a process of soaking them in plaster began, leaving them to dry suspended upside down.

Quite by chance the finished pieces looked like Coral and it was at this point that the piece developed a theme, which is emphasised in the supporting video entitled Reef.

Interested in the issues that affect the welfare of the environment, the artist has been increasingly dismayed to hear reports of the mass bleaching and rapid deterioration of coral reefs across the globe, an ongoing disaster that has been escalating since the 1990’s.

Once dried and finished with beach sand, the completed sculptures became washed-out and resembled corals that have been affected by bleaching, a consequence of this global climate change that we are now experiencing.