ARTIST STATEMENT
I have always had a deep interest in archaeology and palaeontology, which stemmed from my Cypriot grandmother’s stories about Neolithic objects unearthed near her village when she was a child. This fascination with what lies beneath the surface of the earth, and the traces left by humans and other living creatures, has manifested as an exploration into marks and mark making. Doing so however, is made difficult by my chosen medium, as hot glass can never be touched directly. Marks left behind show traces of a life lived, whether scratches on fossils indicating a battle, or the marks left on an 15th century Venetian goblet — they present us with a moment encapsulated in time, and this idea completely fascinates me. In a consumerist culture like the one we find ourselves in today, marks, and the human element are often hidden from the objects we use. It seems as if nothing is eternal, or meant to last, as we can simply upgrade and discard. This is why mark making has become such an integral part of my practice.
Through the study of various ancient objects, my curiosity into hieroglyphs and the way in which mark making has been used to communicate throughout the ages, has manifested as studies through the act of creating the ‘line’. These explorations of communicating through the line draw influence from many different cultures and time periods, ranging from texts found on the walls of Agia Sophia to stenography used in court rooms today. Shorthand writing plays an important factor in the current body of work, as it is an extremely pure expression of language using various types of line. It is unreadable to most people without a guide to decipher, and abstracting this curvaceous language through block, hard, dynamic pattern making starts the creation of a personal form of my own language. Besides from the ‘hidden messages’ within the work, the language starts to take on it’s own aesthetics, where the viewer can enjoy the visuals of the unknown, emulating the feeling of discovery within ancient artefacts.
Another facet of my work, is the incorporation of animals simultaneously with the vessel. Animals have been rich source of inspiration throughout time, where different cultures have pulled from characteristics of many animals, in fear or awe of them. I hope to reflect the ways in which ancient cultures have idolised and associated these particular subjects with animals, and use them in a way to communicate human feelings.
