Liz Clifford
Near Petersfield
Contemporary artist making multi-disciplinary responses to landscape.
"Liz Clifford's practice amalgamates found objects, flora and detritus in caged durational sculptures that resist being contained. These socio-geological studies speak directly to the climate crisis and the effect of the Anthropocene on our Earth. Through spillages onto the spaces they inhabit, the works remind us of the fallacy of controlling the land, as it seeps through the hands of its controller." Ricardo Reverón Blanco. Curator and Programme Manager at Aspex Portsmouth.
https://www.ricardoreveronblanco.org/
The work is concerned, on a micro level, with a narrow locale and specific objects. However, on a macro level it is engaged with discourse about geological time, climate change and environmental breakdown.
Central to my practice is the daily act of walking in the landscape of the South Downs National Park. It is where materials and subject matter are found. The walk is an act of self-care as well as care for the place, clearing litter as I go. The human-made detritus I collect, the materiality of those objects, the act of walking and the hill itself are my subject matter.
This repetitive focus on landscape and geology has allowed me to explore concerns around fossil-fuelled recreation, plastic-waste, and erosion, through drawing and sculpture. The sculptural works combine found objects, waste matter and flora. I manipulate the detritus of agri-business and recreation to highlight issues of pollution and slow violence whilst aiming at a sustainable practice through the use of recycled materials.
My method of construction is low-tech, binding together the salvaged materials, which range from discarded domestic fabric to brick, steel and fencing wire. Tying and knotting is appropriate to their lowly status. These are ‘making do’ joining methods that evolve with circumstances and are associated with ‘fixing things’ in domestic and agricultural contexts.
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