Earth to Earth

Exploring notions of time and the profundities of nature’s mark-making, Earth to Earth belies a unique process. After finishing my objects, I bury them in the earth for prolonged periods, through the seasons. I abandon control and surrender the work to the unpredictable forces of the underground elements. Mud, water, minerals and trapped pockets of air work on the surfaces. The unearthed objects emerge with polychromatic patinas, carrying a memory of a place and time.

Shrouded 5 months, 2021

Brass, buried behind my shed in London

Photo: Sylvain Deleu

Shrouded 3 months under a water spout, 2023

Copper

Photo: Sylvain Deleu

Shrouded 13 months, lost and then found

Silver plated gilding metal

Photo: Sylvain Deleu

Mirrors of Time 2022-23, 0-100-200 days

Bronze, flint, buried in an ancient London woodland, stones found on location

As an echo of changing time and reality, a mirror reflects both fullness and emptiness at the same time, holding not just what is there, but what might be or has been. In Mirrors of Time the viewer is invited to experience how shine and visual clarity slowly fade away and are obscured by layers of patina.

Urns were buried in London, encased in a carapace of mud collected from the Dead Sea. From their time in the earth the urns are naturally sealed shut, the process forever trapping their emptiness inside. An urn is fundamentally an object for protecting our most symbolically precious cargo. These sealed vessels – forged from materials of the earth, themselves buried, then retrieved – tell stories about succession, mortality, preservation and experiencing change.