SUE LAWTY

MEET THE ARTIST

Lawty's work is rooted in an emotional, spiritual and physical engagement with the land.

Through repetitive structure and construction she tacitly and meticulously explores material qualities that are inherently given by the substance she chooses to work with, quietly drawing the viewer in to observe the subtlest of nuances.

"The land and textiles both embody structure and time. Although seemingly diametrically opposed, each carry a strong tactile element and can engender primal and deep visceral responses of connection, narrative and memory. Fabric places us in the continuum of human time but when we pick up a small rock we are connected to deep time."

In this exhibition the artist's medium is found stones. By collecting, organising and ordering thousands of tiny rock fragments ground down by the wild Pacific Ocean, Lawty creates a kind of pixilated cloth in which she bring to our attention the minute variances of each unique found mark.

The idea for this pair of drawings developed intuitively and directly from the material. Almost uniform in size, the stones are laid on a measured grid; their tonal variation and random placement creating a fragmentary picture plane; the hidden language of place.