Sophie Martin-Dye
I am a multi-media artist exploring participatory interaction between humans, and our innate connections with natural elements and materials.
I am a multi-media artist exploring participatory interaction between humans, and our innate connections with natural elements and materials.
To watch a full version of my Final Project, please see my linked instagram page.
My Final Project exhibits a selection of clay models created by participants, being influenced by their own interpretations of the material and reactions to the medium. ‘Place your hand back into the earth‘ features several of these interactions and their resulting forms, placed in a setting surrounded by the echoing sounds of their creation.
Vague forms created under these conditions are paired with videos and images of the journey that made them, with importance being given to the excavation, processing and interaction of the material. My focus on creation as opposed to a sole resulting form highlights the process of making as an artistic outcome in itself.
The clay is sourced from local soils, dug from a selection of locations both in and around the towns housing locations and surrounding farmlands. With Loughborough holding many clay pits across its forests and lakes, the inclusion of its material within my work signifies a deep connection between land and community.
The task of processing around 40kg of clay by hand acts as a gruelling link between the role of the artist, participant and material. The clay is strained several times over the course of many weeks in order to attain a smooth and malleable consistency, creating a clay which is a reflection of our innate connections to our surroundings.
Within my final project, I draw attention to these interactions between material and self through a multi-media outcome. My exhibition displays this relationship between earth, artist and participant, with the sourced clay being used across various workshops and within installation.
From ground, to bucket, to hand: How different approaches to the same material can influence its eventual form.
As part of my development over the past term, I experimented with differing ways of displaying the participant interaction captured throughout my practice.
My contribution to the group exhibition ‘Clay, Lens, Canvas‘ (2024) saw 300+ images of stills from workshops displayed aside recreated scenes, with an emphasis being placed on the messier aspects of clay.
Within this exhibition, I aimed to draw attention to the different approaches to material, whether disgusted with or comforted by its nostalgically playful qualities, and display this in a means of high comparison.
At the time of installation the clay has been touched by over 100 participants and part of 12 workshops, before being eventually placed back into the earth from where it was sourced with its journey unknown.