Solve et Coagula

2010 / Sydney College of the Arts / Post Graduate Show

Solve et Coagula
Glass, wood
Dimensions variable
Photography Ian Hobbs

I see my practice as a type of performance, taking place close to the furnace, in the workshop and the studio and inside my body – a ritualistic branding that leaves more than a trace more of a scarring. However there is a possibility of transformation through this action as there are in all woundings. In all rituals there is memorialization and that is true of my work.

In working with materials that embody the process of transmutation such as molten glass, steel and charred wood, a type of performance takes place close to the furnace, and inside her body.

A ritual that leaves more than a trace, it leaves a place of where there is a possibility of transformation. In previous bodies of work, such as solve et coagula, Fieldsend slumps thick-shaped biomorphic molten glass over and inside a series of dark, truncated vertical forms. The hot glass itself assumes and picks up an imprint memory of the wood grain, is separated, and then when cooled is laid back down over the standing forms.

–Stevie Fieldsend