Miriam Ellis
The themes expressed in my work originate from ideas about the family tree and the fading memories of people with the passing of time.
Inspired by the work of Joseph Cornell, Christian Boltanski and Doris Salcedo, to name a few. I have been working with clay, paper, wax and images to create a series of pieces that I hope evoke these fleeting memories.
I have felt drawn towards working with cubic forms. This stems from a practical need for order and a storage place for inherited items as well as a recent interest in crematoriums, where walls are lined with boxes containing the remains and images of loved ones. Also, perhaps I am influenced by the Perspex photo-cube I played with as a child as well as my fascination for old photographs and film. I am trying to preserve what now seems to be an old fashioned way to remembering.
I have used techniques such as Raku firing to soften what could be hard, clinical forms. It has been revealing to take what are essentially simple geometric shapes and endow them with more human and organic qualities. By restricting my work to a simple form I feel I have been able to explore my interest in collections and repetitive sequences.
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You can follow more of her work by clicking the link below:
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