Emma McKenzie
I am a sculptural installation artist producing works in clay. My work evolves from an intuitive response to place, people, environment and materials. It is an extension of the way I think and an outward expression of what I think about. Through my work I explore notions surrounding identity (both individual and collective) heritage, locale, cultural remains and social-historical narratives. In formulating, interpreting and contextualising my ideas I make use of a Cultural Studies paradigm. This is a reflexive, mutable and self-questioning approach that both examines and questions cultural texts or the ways in which meanings, associations and societal beliefs are formed within social groups.
I create site-specific outcomes (both temporary and permanent in nature) using multiple sculptural elements to populate a space. This repeated element allows for another layer of meaning, a subtext, to be embedded. I am interested in dualism and contradiction, the meaning that is created within relations and oppositions. Multiple elements can also signify fragments, the potential for missing parts, the "not belonging" alongside the "belonging". Material language assists in the reading of these themes and subtexts. Throughout my creative process I like to build up a project-specific vocabulary (informed by critical reading, writing, photography and painting) which is then articulated through the uniquely malleable physical properties of clay.
My responsive approach to the interplay between theory and making, thinking and doing, is what I regard as my methodology. This methodology both underpins and enriches my practice, allowing me to make thoughtful and original artwork.