Nottinghamshire artist Rachel Carter begins her ‘Language of Sculpture: A Spirit of Mayflower 400 Project’ this week – and has posted her plans:
“This new project will aim to digitally capture and bring knotting it into the modern age whilst still retaining the touch of the hand. I’ll explore storytelling, visual art and history through the textural language of sculpture.
Exploring migration and family history, and inspired by the Mayflower story, I’ll be creating a modern version of the Atlantic crossing, then encounter the woven history of the Wampanoag tribe of America held at the Peabody Museum at Harvard University.
This two year project will begin this week with a twin Artist residency at Nottingham College learning Computer Aided Design and at Nottingham Trent University learning scanning and digital mapping.”
Rachel works from her Garden Studio, and has worked on large scale sculpture for the garden and smaller intimate sculptures for the home.
She is interested in developing innovative techniques; her sculptural work often features abstract fluid or geometric shapes that take inspiration from the patterns found in nature. She specialises in using hand weaving techniques for a range of materials, including wax, wire, paper and cord.
“Hand processes such as weaving, knotting & tying, crochet and even corn dollie weaves have allowed that repetition to flourish to a point where my hands can almost sculpt independently of thought.
Challenges push me in some interesting directions, underpinned by my love of research, history and hand processes. I fill endless notebooks questioning stages and noting progress, sketching is a large feature of this creative process.”
We look forward to hearing more about Rachel’s plans for her Spirit of Mayflower project, as she applies her interests to thinking about the historic voyage, the Pilgrims’ journeys, and the encounters they had on the way.