REBECCA APPLEBY
Rebeccas created ‘Grace’, a series of sculptures which have great personal significance, re-grounding her practice in an exploration of the symbolic relationship between architectural and bodily decay. The works echo autobiographical events; three years ago, following the birth of her first child, she was critically ill with sepsis and diagnosed with cancer. She feels compelled to explore this uniquely terrifying, emotional, mysterious yet scientific experience in her work.
Her recent sculptures are constructed using slabs of clay draped over an internal steel structure, pieced and stitched together. Breaking many of the rules of ceramic construction, the steel substrates are used intentionally to encourage the clay to crack and experience trauma. The sculptures are altered and reimagined through the process of firing. The change that they undergo echoes a phenomenon known in architecture as ‘concrete cancer’, when a steel reinforcement starts to rust and expand, displacing the surrounding concrete, whilst the disfiguration, broken edges and patina are suggestive of the human body experiencing injury, ageing and decay.
Nucleus
Bloodless
Trabeculae
Lost in the Woods
Lateral Root
Support
Nucleus (2021) Ceramic sculpture 32cm x 53cm x 34cm, NFS
Bloodless (2021) Ceramic sculpture 16cm x 60cm x 40cm, NFS
Trabeculae (2021) Ceramic sculpture 22cm x 63cm x 36cm, NFS
Lost in the Woods (2021) Ceramic sculpture 38cm x 50cm x 50cm, NFS
Lateral Root (2021) Ceramic sculpture 31cm x 55cm x 20cm, NFS
Support (2021) Ceramic sculpture 54cm x 46cm x 25cm, NFS