This is a feature where we showcase work from our newer members.

Image above: ''Uisge Necklace'

My work is concerned with the natural landscape’s ability to trigger memory and emotion. In order to give my research a sense of visual concreteness, I document the surroundings of my family environment in the rural West Coast of Scotland as it elicits potent memories. I consider connotations of home, shelter and dwelling, using water as a visual metaphor for transience. Water holds a sense of duality as it dies and is constantly reborn. It is a mediator between being and gone; encompassing many states of presence.

The relationship between place and personal attachment fascinates me. Sensory experiences can evoke precise moments in time, completely unique to the individual.

I am interested in creating work in response to my own recollections. The symbolic structures I produce aim to give my memories physical tangibility; transforming them from fleeting entities to something far more visually concrete.

From these ideas, I reflect upon the relationship between adornment and the object. I comment on ideas of subjective worth, through exclusively combining silver with ‘non-precious’ found elements, such as slate and stone. In my work I use processes such as forging, casting and chasing in unorthodox ways, to induce a sense of organic unpredictability.

Through focusing on the importance of the trace of the maker, the individual ‘drawn’ marks demonstrate my interest in the relationship between momentary and the constant. Through investigating what was, I seek to develop an understanding of what now remains.

Visit Ellis's website via this link.

All images from the Uisge Collection