Rachael Mellors: Embodied Earth

Hand formed sculptures are created with clay fallen onto the beach from the eroding cliffs and fired in a pit dug in the olive grove. Assemblages are created referencing the past and present local industries of pottery and olive oil.

Digital images taken the few moments after the sun rises capture the momentary shadow imprint of the artist’s body on the cliff face, embedded with layers of soils and impregnated with shells, layered over millions of years. Moving images created by Pete Hudson evoke this immersive relationship.

“It is raw, spontaneous expression that fires my creative energy. Allowing chance and imagination into my artistic process, the unexpected happens”

Rachael Mellors studied Fine Art at Portsmouth and Ceramics at the Royal College of Art. Her new work embodies an intuitive response to her immersive relationship with the living natural world.

Her artistic practice is rooted in the cycles and processes of life, in synchronicity with the seasons, the rising of the sun and the ecological and geological processes of erosion and regeneration. Her making takes place where raw materials are sourced, on a shoreline and olive grove in Greece, enabling works to be imbued with unique markings inherent in the locality. In using natural materials the product of one cycle becomes the raw material of the next. Traces of imprints of her hands and body are embedded in the work. The elemental forces, expanded awareness and appreciation of the natural world are integral to her creative processes.

Preview: Tuesday 25 February, 18:00 - 19:30