Felicity White (She/her)
I am interested in materials that have memory, through being repurposed or organic. I am influenced by narratives around material animacy, ritual and reciprocity that have become pronounced through my engagement with Indigenous perspectives, Eastern philosophy, and my scientific background in molecular biology and cognitive science.
I explore texture, tension and light to bring out these animate qualities. I work with materials until they resonate emotionally and viscerally for me, evoking the body, and the delicate balance of order and chaos in micro- and macro- scopic organic structures all around us.
Contact
Bundled… Lifted… Held.
Re-wound, repurposed rope, rust, bladderwrack seaweed, cornflour 2023
Bundled… Lifted… Held. is informed by the materiality of rope, rust, and seaweed biofilm. However, it has also emerged out of a fascination with various topics including the history of Maya people and sisal rope, celtic knots, microscopic sea creatures and protein folding in living matter. Beneath these subjects is an interest in relationality, and the interweaving, changing nature of matter as it moves in and out of living forms.
The words ‘Bundled… Lifted… Held.’ could describe actions forcefully performed to control. But they also have more neutral or even positive associations such as the movement of the ocean – gathering, lifting and suspending matter, or a mother bundling up her child.
The activity in these words juxtaposes the fixedness of the sculptures and hints at their past. Materials are not fixed objects, they constantly exchange energy, matter and meaning. Studying Biology showed me how layers of exchange are fundamental to life processes, forming order out of chaos. I was inspired by the elegance of these systems to create tumbling forms which express dynamic equilibrium.
It is also important to me that emotion and a bodily sense enter the work, to relate human interactions with material stories.
Materials such as sisal rope, a plant native to the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico. Its story is intermingled with the colonial suppression of Maya people, among that of many others. In colonised lands and over perilous sea crossings, people and environments were manipulated and exhausted for the sake of the sisal trade. Meanwhile, rope on these voyages became twisted and worn, gathering marks of use.
Research on Indigenous perspectives has also been an influence. Indigenist researchers Shawn Wilson and Robin Wall Kimmerer describe how interconnectivity is embedded in Indigenous social practices, through ceremonies and gift exchange. They propose that these helps us feel part of the world, closing the gaps between people and their environment. Inspired by this, I have been led by a joy in making and exchanging knowledge of these materials, building a relationship with them and their stories.
