Sarah makes work that has a primitive quality about it: slab-built from coarse, black clay, forms are torn, textured, rough-edged and purposely imperfect. Tearing sheets of raw clay into shape and working spontaneously and intuitively imbues Sarah’s work with an inherent unpredictability. Rips and lacerations are actively encouraged and become an essential part of the making process, revealing the life of the form and the journey it has been on in its creation. Her stripped back structures celebrate a wholeness and beauty that embrace imperfection and uncertainty.
She is intrigued by what lies unseen in the chasm between who we present to the world and who we actually are with all our conflicting feelings, beliefs and dreams. “Enchanted by the ideal of perfection we lose touch with the depth, texture and grittiness of living authentically”.
The raw surfaces of her work reflect this grittiness and texture whilst the tension between the inner and outer self is present in the hidden potential of the inner void set against the reality of the visible surface.
Placed together in groups, standing together or set apart, subtle relationships arise between the forms: echoes of primal structures from ancient times, encouraging the viewer to look, then look again.