Esme Bone

I came to the residency without planning exactly what I would do. I didn’t take much with me as I wanted to make use of what I came into contact with, planning to make some sculptures that would be ephemeral and natural and that I wouldn’t bring back with me. I made two sculptures from cardboard that I hand pulped and grew from small parts, coiling up from pieces of slate I found at the beach. I didn’t have a plan for their form but allowed them to grow slowly as they wished. I felt myself drawn to making vessels, enjoying their possibility and potential, their openness and readiness to be used, filled, fed. The evening before we left I placed these two sculptures into the fire.
 
I had been thinking about dry stone walls for a while and I was finally able to meet some during my time at Mawddach Crescent. I loved being near their deep sense of time. I imagined the forming of the stones themselves and felt connected to the ancient process of arranging stones in this way. I was fascinated with how they seemed to be partly absorbed by the landscape, the gaps between the stones now homes for other living things. I felt inspired by how non-intrusive this form of making is, a coming together of human and nature in a gentle and sustainable way. I am drawn to their haphazard nature paired with a sense of care and consideration. They felt weighty and monumental as well as vulnerable and precarious. I made some drawings as well as a modelling clay sculpture with the walls in mind, and a sense of balance, stacking, and care.
 
 
I spent a lot of time on the window seat looking out at the view and experiencing a sense of shifting, one that was slow over time like the forming of stones or making of mountains. And then there was the shifting of mist and the ripples of the water that were calm but swift and fleeting. The mountains seemed so steady and heavy in comparison to the mysterious mist. But even mountains move, they teach us to rest and still feel alive because in all their weight they are still breathing. I thought about contrasts and contradictions, and how I try to give space to the different parts of me when making to be both soft and slow, quick and spontaneous, both mountain and mist.

Making cordage from natural fibers has been involved in my practice for a little while now and when I saw the abundance of soft rush in the environment it felt right to start collecting a small amount for making string. The name ‘soft rush’ felt like such a beautiful combination of words that felt like the name of the movement of dancing mist across the mountains. I thought of the vastness of space, of infinite distance and immediate presence - the mountains were far away and the grass was there in my hand. I took the soft rush home with me and will be slowly twisting it into cordage to use in a piece that hopefully captures a part of the landscape.
 
After a quick cold swim one day in the estuary and feeling my feet sinking into the silt, I wondered what was beneath the sand, and the next day I used my hands to uncover a dark coloured clay. I used the clay in a similar way to the cardboard, adding small pinches at a time to coil around and up from the slate. The second piece was made more quickly, coiling a pot and adding small pieces to its body. These two clay sculptures I titled ‘The Mountains and Me - An Offering To The Estuary’. The day before we left I placed them both on the estuary bed from where they came, allowing the water to carry them home. Making these pieces knowing that they would not last reminded me of the joy of making sand castles. I also made some drawings using the clay on paper, applying it directly with my hands which felt playful and free, with a closeness to material, an activation of the senses, and a relationship to the body.
 
Often my work doesn’t directly visualise the world around me, instead, I aim for the work to capture a sense of the strangeness of life, its ambiguity, uncertainty, and unpredictability. Immersing myself and exploring an unknown place that was both beautiful and tangled, peaceful and mysterious feels to have re-energised me with this essence of life. It was a lesson in getting lost and feeling at home.

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