Sue Law

Artist Statement

Back at the beginning of 2020, before the Covid crisis began, I had decided to make some haptic sculptures. 

Haptic: relating to the sense of touch, particularly relating to the perception and manipulation of objects using the senses of touch and proprioception. 

Visitors to a Gallery or Art Museum are kept at a distance from the sculptures and told not to touch - with good reason in many cases - as the patina on a bronze or the delicate finish that the artist has made, is easily damaged. That doesn’t help the viewer though, sculpture is often something that we want to touch!

My idea was that the visitors to my exhibition would be able to pick up the sculptures, to feel and experience the shape and texture of the piece. Covid has made that impossible at the moment. 

During the lockdowns I have been working at home, on small clay sculptures that have been fired at Artworks. The first of these pieces were made in white clay. For this exhibition I have made work in clay which, when fired, is black. These small sculptures are made to fit in your hand, they are made to be held and experienced.

It is ironic that my sculptures for this online exhibition cannot be touched, but I hope that you enjoy looking at them. Should you itch to touch them- please contact me to purchase them! 

Previously the body and its relationship to the space that surrounds it has inspired my sculpture. Absence and Presence are recurrent themes within my work as these sculptures are the physical depiction of the negative space around the figure. I have used resin to make sculptures of stiletto shoes that include an impression of the wearer's feet. Using Adobe Illustrator I have developed images that have been laser cut from Perspex to create a large installation describing the events of a 'Girls Night Out'. This piece is a comment on the current binge drinking culture.

I have also used the solid substantial physicality of bronze and the light delicacy of plaster bandage to describe the negative space around the exquisite curves of the figure.  The devout of many religions kneel to pray to their God. I cast the knees of ten people from different religions. These fragile plaster casts, kneeling in a circle on the floor are spaced apart as if still occupied. Together they kneel in prayer, each to their own God.

In my wall based work I have explored the process of painting and mark making. These paintings have a very luxurious use of colour, the depth of the textured paint giving a sculptural feel to the finished work.

My bronze sculptures show a flash of a face, drawn with a zig zag of metal but still with the essence of the person pictured.