Elaine Allison


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Archive I (detail)

 

A life sized bronze figure of a dancer was one of my early works. Diana was 70 years old at the time she modeled for me, and the work was imbued with her dignity and my respect for her. The same sentiments are echoed in one of my most recent works 'Remembering the Grace I Never Knew', in which I have taken discarded minutiae from an old woman's possessions and resurrected them with care and sensitivity to create a poignant reliquary.


I exhibited the sculpture of Diana alongside a tiny bronze figure of myself as a five-year-old girl. Looking to my past has been a recurring theme in my work, which often incorporates old family photographs and personal effects.


My exploration of the influences and constraints that help to form character is articulated through the precise combination of apparently disparate elements, to create objects that are mysterious but subtly allusive.


My latest assemblages use found objects in an unexpected way, juxtaposing unlikely materials such as fire extinguishers and birds eggs against sensuous velvet. Ostensibly mundane materials and objects are handled with a reverence that imbues them with significance. The names of the works - Self Preservation - Safe Keeping - Archive - imply something intimate and yet to be explored.

 

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