“Alchemy”

£140.00

Materials: Stone, crocheted yarn, charred wood & a plaster cast of a walnut

Dimensions: 21cm x28cm x 6cm

 

Alchemy is the first piece in a new body of experimental work, ‘Properties of Preservation’, which investigates the properties of materials new to me, analysing their potential to preserve the texture and form of found objects.

This material research project evolved from a desire to replicate objects and test different ways in which I can represent them in my compositions without physically including them. To explore this, I have undergone training in mould making and casting in a range of mediums and testing ways in which I can apply this new knowledge to my practice. After a recent workshop, I have been studying the chemical reactions created when working with silicone, plaster and jesmonite. To create this cast of a walnut shell, I observed and prepared for an array of new materials reacting differently to one another.

Alchemy plays with the juxtaposition of found and made objects, and how these react to each other in a composition.

This project has been made possible with the help of SIAP from the ACNI.

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Artist Bio

Sarah Cathers is a mixed media artist from County Down. Since graduating in 2018, she has exhibited her work in Belfast, Lisburn, London, Cardiff, Manchester, Brighton and Liverpool. Driven by the process of fragmentation, Sarah approaches her practice as a modern day archaeologist.

Sarah describes herself as ‘a naturally curious collector with an urge to record and preserve the forgotten. Fascinated by adhesives and their ability to secure and fasten materials together, I focus on the binding capabilities of thread, using fibres to conceal and repair. I aim to preserve an objects history, acknowledging the past while recognising the potential to be something other than the original purpose.

I collect discarded objects, mending and combining materials to assemble small sculptures, juxtaposing the unlikely to create a tangible record of the environment and people. I curate objects of curiosity in ‘families’ based on an instinctive response or relationship between materials.’

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