We talk to three Swansea College of Art students who will be showing 3-D works in the elysium gallery testbed space at the same time as the sculpture exhibition – Material Matters curated by Sarah Tombs featuring Sokari Douglas Camp, Lee Grandjean, Marie-Therese Ross and Andrew Sabin.
The Testbed space is a part of the gallery set aside for emerging artists to experiment with new work and become part of the elysium gallery exhibitions programme.
Material Matters explores the relationship of process and materiality, how through experimentation and manipulation the sculptor is able to generate sculptural objects whose content and motivations are accessible to an audience.
Branwen Jones is an artist based in South Wales, currently completing a BA in Fine Art: Studio, Site and Context at Swansea College of Art. Her work explores the relationship between material and form, and how histories and ideas are embedded in materials and in forms. She is interested in the histories and legacies of colonialism, the forms of modernity and the western visual imagination, and how these histories and forms are sedimented in the fabric of the present. She is also interested in how ideas become embedded within a work of art. Her work emerges as the result of an interaction between ideas and the response of the materials – their size, flexibility, how they can be shaped or attached or joined. This can be different from the way that ideas are articulated in written text, offering greater space for ambiguity, indeterminacy, or humour.
Jones enjoys the process of inventing and improvising that is necessary in making things, especially when working with ordinary materials encountered in everyday life. For example, she has made work with newspaper; cotton and wax; natural clay from Port Einon; plastic cable ties and the plastic tags that attach a price-tag to an item of clothing. She is using discarded wooden floorboards to make a set of tools, and to make glass display cabinets.
As well as improvising, she is committed to exploring materials and techniques which have historically not been available to women, such as woodwork and metalwork. Her work has required learning how to make a tenon joint, how to weld a metal frame, how to cut glass. This stems in part from her own school experience being taught sewing but no carpentry. It is also a response to the experience of the contemporary world which is so thoroughly mediated by computer screens and smart phones.
Luke Cotter is a practising artist born in South Wales (2004) and currently studying a Fine Art BA at Swansea College of Art UWTSD. His work consists mainly of installation and sculpture, in which he aims to explore themes of material waste and the value that we give those materials historically. His work is most often large scale and ranges from life sized to the size of entire rooms working with installation and sculpture in a way that aims to engage interactivity and inclusivity. One of the integral parts of Luke’s practice is the use of found material and its application within a context of intended purpose of those materials in comparison with the icons that they embody. His work is currently showing in the Glynn Vivian and he has had other works previously shown in Cardiff and Swansea with Golwg ar Gelf (2023) and in University shows like Panoply (2023).
‘The work in the exhibition is made almost entirely with found materials. When making this piece I was intrigued by the function of springs, with these springs coming from a set of chairs I found in a skip behind my university. I made this work with the idea of thinking in a childlike manner of how to have fun with these materials, allowing myself to create what are essentially toys. These toys all use those springs as their main source of function and allowed a way of thinking that was really refreshing and enjoyable especially when thinking of sculptures that allow a haptic interactivity. The aspect of using found material to make allows a way of creating that forces your hand in many ways to adapt to the nature of the material and push it to its limits which is something I have tried to incorporate in this piece’.
Amelie Warner is an artist born in Croydon (2004) who now practices in Swansea and is currently studying Fine art BA at Swansea college of Art UWTSD. Amelie has exhibited in her university exhibition Panoply (2023) previously, but Material Matters is her first public showing of work. Amelie’s work is surrounded around the idea of creating small worlds for others to enjoy. She finds creating these worlds peaceful and healing for herself. Amelie looks at how scale changes the feel of work, inclining to the smaller scales. The worlds she makes are rooted in themes of grief, belonging and being ecologically aware.
‘A World Unknown is a series of miniature houses made from found cardboard in various sizes. The idea behind the piece is to make the audience feel a sense of belonging and that they can immerse themselves within these houses. The warm lights coming out of the cracks are to seem welcoming, like a warm fire. I don’t want to tell the audience what these houses mean to them or what they should feel, it is for you to find what u need. Each house when I make them has a story to me. Although, these houses in necessity are not copying houses that I see but the architecture that surrounds me has inspired my thought process in making the various styles of homes. These aren’t reflections of the world but a whole new one that doesn’t need to follow any rules, it just exists. Each building is a home that someone would live in ranging from cottages to apartment blocks from around the world. As a physical house has a different appearance for everyone’.
Exhibition Preview: Friday 29th March 7pm.
Exhibition continues until Saturday 11th May.
Opening hours: Wednesday – Sat 11am – 7pm
