Becoming a Bridge Troll Intern.
Issue One. Sept 2023.
We all live deeply complex lives.
It is very easy to loose touch with your true nature along the way.
However, the need to find contentment, to be fulfilled, always remains.
Sometimes we just need a little push to remember; to rediscover how to be curious, playful and present - to recall the good in the world & find time for the things that bring us joy.
This zine hopes to provide you with some interactive activities, stories and inspiration to help you to find them, however many times you need.
The things that make us vivid, content individuals.
Learn/re-learn (2023)
Sit with the trouble that follows you.
The trouble you contain.
Container's breaking,
Cracking.
Dripping & Flooding.
It's heavy.
Breathe.
Squeeze your upper arms, stretch.
Open the windows & count the birdsong.
Now; name the trouble, grip it and face it head on.
Own it honestly.
Unfold, Solve.
It's not too late to try again.
Onwards.
Ongoing ceramics work.
A series of small decorative vessels. Started in November 2022.
Fledgling residency~Oct, 2022
I remember how I used to see, I carry my childhood around with me. I am blessed to still know the ways of play.
The land, I feel, is an entity. It knows and welcomes me.
We observe each other quietly attempting to figure out if we are separate or the same.
It has taken me a while to figure out in words why I do what I do.
To me the sculpture (named hob) is a playful enactment of rememberings, a form born of losing myself in my imagination. These characters emerge from the child's mind, amongst bracken dens and vast fields. We were equals and I was a part of their world. In listening and noticing I welcome the trace of memory.
The instinctual movement in the hands brings process into focus, I am mindful about how I forage and process the material of the land. the marks of my hand in the clay denote my presence and connection. The gathering is thoughtful and quiet. On walks I collect sounds, curating them into a soundscape.
Material is gathered from this local land and that of my own, clay that is dug from the sea on opposite shores, married with the earth of this local woodland. It's important to me to take only what is needed. And after it will be returned.
SEARCHING FOR YOU IN THE STRANGERS WHO PASSED ME IN THE STREET. 2022
Within this body of work I have been throwing small pots and utilising recognisable forms of domestic ceramics to offer potential to reflect the complexities of the human condition. Exploring narratives around the self & family; processing fragmented belonging. Once off the wheel, they are vulnerable to damage as they dry. The experience is cathartic as I then throw, pull, punch, break and mend these vessels. Now they gather in reconciliation.
kins by kit
side project :)
Mending Series 2021-2022
Within these discarded and now mended pots I find a connection to human narratives. I am particularly interested in the act of mending ceramics that are handmade by other individuals whom to me have no face. My only connection to that individual is in their object that managed to find its way into my hands. On its journey to me, the pot will have had multiple interactions with other individuals I shall never meet or come to know, but am now intrinsically connected to. Touching a handmade ceramic surface is almost like braille, you are re-tracing the marks of existences that came before you. I view ceramics as an extension of the self. They too are equally subjected to the elements of life and have a lifecycle. Brought into creation with a purpose and an individual identity. Just as we do, it ages and degrades and as it does it collects memories and stories. I use the recognisable form of a domestic object that has been broken and then mended, as a vessel to talk about the convolutions of life. With this ongoing series of work I am struck by sonder; realising that each life that intertwines with my own is equally as complex and vivid, each with a story to tell. And It feels; especially in our current climate, that we are all just holding ourselves together, so that we can continue onwards.
SOCKS, 2021
TRACE. Worn down, damaged from the pressure and movement of the body that continually found comfort within its form. The imprint of the body still visible; particularly observed within the socks heal and toe pads. Within the work ‘Socks’, I aim to highlight, to map, the ritual of discarding; the inherent lack of respect we have for non-human bodies. I recognise a sense of emptiness within these items of clothing, its form suggests a life once inhabited, as if stepped out of and left; abandoned. This sense of abandonment within, suggests the occupier has long since disappeared. I envision the placement of the 'Socks' in a hypothetical landscape of empty clothes, in an attempt to remind us of what we have, what we could lose and what has already been lost. I hope that this work can cast light on how there is still hope for a future where we are still present, a sense that the emptiness can be filled with life again; but only with sufficient collective changes. There is a replication of the image of mould and fungi within the darning, a symbol of rebirth. The embolic imagery enveloping the original material with the new ones. The cyclical nature of life in flux of deterioration and new vitality.
AFTERMATH, 2021
Four unfired clay heads placed in a body of water, all dissolved but the nose. Its surface degraded, reminiscent of mycelium. An exploration into life cycles and temporality.
SYMBIOSIS, 2021
A fragmented figurative bust merging into organic forms, akin to fungi. The work attempts to express an interconnection between our species and nature, a need for reconciliation.
OVERGROWN, 2021
An unfired clay head, placed within a jar that can generate its own eco system. As the organic life grows, the figurative form degrades and breaks down from the condensation. The work battles with the external force to remain seen. There is a sense of reclamation, the work talks of life cycles and our relationship with the wider world.
DERELICTION OF DUTY, 2021
Drawn instinctively to clay with its dual motif, symbolising both the earth for its material makeup, and the body for the interaction marked within its form and surface. Here I sculpt a figurative bust. In this work I have attempted to express our propensity to view ourselves as the pinnacle of human evolution, dominating all forms of life on our planet. Where we could have elevated our species to the post of guardian over all other life, the politics of greed and power have meant that those in the position to create sustainable change concern themselves only with matters of self-sustenance. This fallacy has led to the disregard of every other entity to the point where even other sentient life becomes objectified. This dereliction of duty has resulted in driving all life into extinction. Products of our discarded mass consumption worn like a crown of thorns, blinding us to the damaged caused.