12:381.1m29052024-never felt so close
James Aldous
“12:381.1m29052024-never felt so close”, is a ceramic and clay Installation, consisting of over 200 kg of raw clay and ceramic elements. The piece explores the practice of mudlarking and the objects found from this practice. My piece uses this to explore the what if, of some creatures of the depths that washed up on Thames river beaches. The creatures rising from the depths of the river washed up with other objects each with their own histories of the life lived particularly interested me and how time and the earth affects each object particularly in relation to the Thames river and how polluted it is, causing the creatures to have a “mouldy” appearance that I have replicated through glazing.
Materiality is also important to me, I have used raw clay to construct the landscape of the piece, working with clay in this way using my own body as a tool to shape the clay it creates a record of how I have moved whilst creating the piece. Raw clay also allows the piece to continually change; it will start to crack and dry over time mirroring how nature changes over time. All of the raw clay is to be recycled, resetting the piece as if the tide has come in and out leaving a new landscape with new stories to tell in its place.
James Aldous is a Fine Artist primarily working with ceramic sculpture and mixed media installation. Themes within his work include the body, connections to people and memories. With a keen interest in the material exploration of ceramics and all of its possibilities to create ambitious clay sculptures. Aldous was recently featured on the cover of “Smoke Magazines” issue 2 with the piece “Watch your step” and recently exhibited at Ambika P3 in the Fine Art Mixed Media Degree Show.
