Alyssa Venning-Thomas
Nature, Touch and Place
My work is a study of myself, the natural environments I have worked in, and how this subjective experience can be ‘captured’ in the clay.
When I sit down and make in natural places, I focus on my body being the medium between the environment and the clay. What I think and feel in response to the place I am in, is indexed into the object I am making. The movements of my hands are not premeditated, instead I respond from one moment to the next. The clay forms I’ve made bear traces of other uses: hanging devices, decorative touches, largish collection; some of which still hold traces of where they were created, evoking past and future deployments.
Being influenced by nature while not actually being a part of nature; the pieces sit in between these two places. The final works are near the windows with an outlook outside to acknowledge this link. This link is further developed through the formal arrangement of the pieces as a nod to how leaves, twigs or stones may collect on the ground in scatterings, drifts and piles. To acknowledge the sometimes random nature of these piles of organic or geological debris, each pile has been formed using the same gesture of being poured to avoid being overly constructed.