SARAH WOOLFENDEN

VISUAL ART

My work is influenced by the landscape of the far west of Cornwall - hills, horizons, paths, standing stones, jetties and boat shapes. The starting point for a piece is often a very quick sketch containing the essence of an idea, and the eventual form of each object emerges through the process of making. The final sculptures are often ambiguous, somewhere between natural formations and more human-made objects. 

Marks are incorporated into each piece by printing, drawing, painting and cutting into the slab, or by pressing elements into it, before and during the construction process.  These printed slabs are then cut and assembled to form an object. Working very much by eye or instinct and cutting out unexpected shapes because they seem to work with their surface markings, the final form may refer only loosely to the initial drawing.  

Often the object has to be propped up while I am working on it, and pieces precariously balanced while I decide what to place where.  This may then involve pieces breaking or cracking and so changing the form.  The object may in fact emerge as it is because that is what could be supported.  The joints, cracks, cuts, mistakes, rethinkings are not hidden.  In fact, these are all integral to the final piece.  It becomes a record of its own creation.