This page showcases works that inform and are part of the current PhD research project which considers what it means to have a material practice in the context of climate change.
To Propagate: To Graft
Reclaimed wood, reclaimed house-paint, varnish and steel
190 X 60 X 40 cm
2023
Installed at Hestercombe Gallery and Gardens
In Solidarity
Emma Elliott and Susie Olczak
2024
Video (4 minutes 7 seconds )
Shown at Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens with the Royal Society of Sculptors.
In Solidarity is a video work created collaboratively between Emma Elliott and Susie Olczak that combines storytelling from their time in Armila, Panama; where Elliott and Olczak spent time together researching and experiencing living in the Darien Gap, with footage shot in Cornwall, 2023.
In Solidarity considers the significance of walking throughout human existence and its connection to survival and place. People walk to save their lives, for spiritual enlightenment, for healing and for leisure. Pertinent to their discussions and core theme of this work is their time spent in Armila, in the Guna Yala region which holds the world's most dangerous migration routes consisting of miles of dense roadless rainforest, mountains, and swamps. The migrant crisis in Armila became an unexpected and significant dynamic of their residency with hundreds of migrants passing through the town everyday, their presence quickly became a large part of the story of Armila and their time there.
Shot in Cornwall where the artists walked parts of the St Michael’s Way; a coast to coast pilgrimage while reminiscing about their time in the Darien Gap. Footage also shot on the North Coast and at Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens.
This work was made in direct conversation with their past work Where The Jungle Meets the Sea… The World is Split in Two, 2022 and is a response to the relationship between landscape, and the deliberate act of walking, to human connection and shared experiences.
Where the Jungle Meets the Sea… The World is Split in Two.
Emma Elliott and Susie Olczak
2022
Video (5 minutes 44) Shot using solar powered technology in Armila, Panama.
This work was long listed for the Aesthetica Art Prize 2024.
It's Going to Be Okay
2022
Reclaimed steel and aluminium, metal paint, reclaimed interior paint and digital print onto reclaimed plastic.
Dimensions Variable.
Shown In Unlit Path at the Hardwick Gallery in 2022 alongside Where the Jungle Meets the Sea… The World is Split in Two which forms Reciprocity. A current research project focusing on experiences living in the rainforest in June 2022. The residency was with La Wayaka Current, living with an indigenous community in the Darien Gap on the border of Panama and Colombia.
Fragmented Reality
2022
Digital Photographs, paint, steel, reclaimed copper, packaging tape, paper, gum Arabic prints and cyanotypes.
170 x 50 x 30 cm
A series of etchings exploring mycorrhizal networks.
Escaping the Confines
2020
Reclaimed plastic, reclaimed stool, packaging tape, cardboard, spray paint and paint.
190 x 30 x 30 cm
Waiting for the Natural to be Turned On
Digital Projection
2021
Waiting for the Natural to be Turned On is part of an ongoing body of work that considers the human relationship with nature, how it is domesticated and how it is everywhere, even in the most urban of spaces.
This work takes its starting point from the painting The Great Cascade at Hestercombe by Bampfylde, 1762 and another image from the archives at Hestercombe where a group of spectators await the turning back on of the waterfall. This spatial projection aims to ask the viewer to question their perception of nature and knowledge of what is truly natural. Human intervention is everywhere and there is so little that is purely natural. Landscape is formed from human interaction and the traces of them are everywhere. The work is visual journey which layers and collages together footage of plants and water from within the gardens and intertwining materials found in the studio and architectural spaces. This work highlights the similarities between the way we build and adapt as humans to how nature grows and evolves. Handmade collages are woven into the imagery and the footage goes in and out of focus.
The work also draws from the history of framing within gardens used as a device to draw the viewer to the next vantage point. The projection intended to be viewed from in-front references theatrical sets and landscape painting. Throughout the work there are reoccurring shots that incorporate perforations and geometry to frame and obscure the view. It is intended to be hypnotic and disorienting to suggest that we can find balance within the fragmentation of our experiences and memories of spaces we spend time within in real life and with amidst the abundance of digital media we swim through every day.
Chain Reaction
2019
Screen printing acetate, paper, tape, rope, steel and paint.
185 x 40 x 30 cm
This work is part of a body of work made for the MA show at the Royal College of Art is a chain reaction of experimental making. A process of constructing, taking apart and reconfiguring. It uses the idea of the artist model and materials in a studio or an architectural practice to speak of both the calm and chaos of London as a city.
The sculptures layer up optical print and become a blur. This is an experience reminiscent of when people move through cities or the grids of digital space- being lost in the pixels. It aims to playfully encourage the viewer to question what is real and what is fake, commenting on how so often now in society it is difficult to discern reality. The forms give a sense of being able to be reconfigured in order to offer the viewer, the hope of control over the spaces around them.
On sections of the works, silicone and paint form expressive layers, they obscure the view further. This is intended to ask the audience to reconsider how they see and experience the world. Questioning their focus on the slick nature of the shiny screen-like transparent forms and the printed media they are often exposed to. The silicone is a nod to plastic use and the duality between this material being seductive yet sinister. Photographs of foliage creep into parts of the work, suggesting growth and movement and the way that in cities foliage is intertwined with geometry. The sculptures become both chaotic and playful and essentially, they are a way of collaging pieces of the world together. Focusing in on the details and framed fragments, they push the viewer’s perception of scale and aim to be bold and dynamic works.
Fold
2020
Screen printing acetate, Digital photograph, paper, and paint.
90 x 30 x 30 cm
Sakura
2021
Fluorescent tube, reclaimed cardboard, reclaimed plastic, packaging tape paint and paper
160 x 30 x 30 cm
Adaptation
2020
Mono-print collage
59.4 x 42 cm
Weave
2022
30 x 22 cm
Gum arabic print
Work made as part of a recent ongoing series of printmaking experiments exploring the way that nature is always present even in the most urban of environments.
On Light: Water: Air
2018
Light Projection
This projection work made for the Aerocene workshop is composed of footage filmed about the consideration of light and the effects it can have in our urban spaces. In particular considering it whilst moving through transitory spaces, calling for us to stop and reflect on the details we see and to take notice of the world around us. This is represented with footage taken from details of materials in the studio and from documentation of interiors of buildings.
The next elemental aspect of footage is water using footage taken in Venice during the summer. This section begins with water flooding into the room, it is turbulent and hard to control. This considers climate change and the dangers that we face in relation to water, in particular within urban spaces where a large percentage of the population lives. The abstract narrative ends with calmer waters, suggesting that there is hope in controlling the climate. It leads on to influences from the Palais de Tokyo using air, the footage is calm and more settled. The hope is that as with the light this creates a full circle that we can go back to a more hopeful future.
Image taken during a research trip to Iceland used to inspire the glass cast below.
Fragment of a Melting World
2019
Cast glass
33 x 15 x 6 cm
This work is a glass cast inspired by a research trip to Iceland, which was made possible through being awarded a travel grant from Villiers David. It is based on the Diamond Beach in the south of Iceland which is an incredibly beautiful but sad place as the ice melts from the glacier, breaks away into a lagoon, where it sits majestically. It continues to fragment, floats down to the sea and is then washed up onto the black volcanic shoreline. There it sits, glistening in the sun that is to be its own demise, never to be reformed again. This sculpture used CAD software to simulate ice which was then CNC milled and the cast was made from the milled form. The hope is that this work highlights the fragmenting and shifting ice and gives a sense of the magnitude of this climatic problem.
Connecting Through Water
2021
Light Projection
This work layered imagery crowd sourced during the first lockdown in 2020 and filmed remotely across different time zones around the world between South America, Asia and Australia. The work aimed to use water as a material connect people at a time where for many it became a place of solace.
Liquid Landscapes
2021
An aspect lecture which takes the audience on an elemental journey beginning with light, moving to water, air and fire and ending with earth. The works explore ideas of time, fragility and spatial experience through consideration of the cosmological and the geological. Questions are posed about the importance of our relationship to the elements within urban space and what can be learnt from ideas of experimental creative processes and human adaptation in relation to these materials. This short presentation gives a sense of the importance of this fluid approach to materiality and immateriality and the layering of experiences of the world around through different processes. It aims to promote the exploration of unusual combinations of materials such as the submergence of neon into water or in pushing boundaries materially, for example, using glass to prop up heavier masses. This visual journey makes suggestions about the connections between these elements and wider societal concerns. The intention is to highlight the importance of the human relationship to the elements in light of climate change. Parallels would be drawn between spatial experiences amidst the architecture of our cities, the journeys we make through ever growing digital networks in the air around us and the creative exploration we undertake.