Moribund of Memory

Moribund of Memory portrays the gradual decay of sentiment.

My sculptural work began with an interest in natural curiosities. I have had a lifelong attentiveness to the remains of fauna. My muses, most commonly found while roaming the Welsh countryside, were the remains of animals. But since living in a coastal town I progressed from making sculptures with skulls and bones, to create an amalgamation of mollusc and human. Made with air-drying clay I consistently work over layers that gradually form the figure. Without being drawn from directly, these sculptures have influenced my degree paintings.

The perception of shells is intriguing to me, in some ways they are no different from skulls, yet they are usually regarded as a happy and almost naïve decoration. I find that depicting shells, as opposed to the more obvious remains, adds an obscured complexity to my work. Underneath the facade of naive pinks a shell could be seen as the equivalent of a human skeleton, yet they are often used as a sea-side home ornament. Most commonly taken home for its ability to evoke memories a shell will retain sentimental value as part of the home environment.

Three of these sculptures were exclusively made with air-drying clay. While the one above was created with the addition of a shell. I started her at the beginning of my degree. Now that my university experience is about to end, she is complete.