Juliet Ferguson-Rose

My practice assembles personal, prehistorical and topographical references. As an artist and sculptor primarily working in clay, I am making sculptures as both maker and ‘archaeologist’ of collaged space, time and objects.

Through excavating, mixing, cutting, compressing and attaching clay, I unearth and create layers of surface and meaning. Drawing upon this broad visual language of making, clay components are grouped to expose topographical portals, where narratives are arranged and rearranged, becoming an assemblage of relics preserved in time, totems to future-past narratives.

This approach parallels the exhilaration of the archaeologist excavating, with the process of an artist who mines concepts from the recesses of their mind, both seeking to stumble upon the unknown. The language of the clay itself is of prime importance, comprised of fine particles of compressed amalgam of mineral, flora and fauna. Mixed and hidden layers reveal the material’s tactile nature and the human need to create, preserve and remember. I create works that aspire to delight the viewer’s curiosity, reminding us that no layer is the same in the process of discovery.