Amber Mansfield-Davies - BA (Hons) Fine Art
I am a collector, a hoarder, a magpie, intrigued by the everyday, artefacts and relics of life. I dig and search for deeper meanings in these cherished items we possess in order to understand our place in the world.
Through reproducing, collecting, and curating found objects, I explore new worlds, creating new narratives and unearthing richer connections between these seemingly mundane objects. Acquiring belongings to touch, to exchange, to share became an obsession. They hold collected memories of journeys, childhood, family, and my sister.
Her owl, one of many she collected and subsequently inspired me to collect, is now a parliament of owls, cast, shaped and glazed, while the original is representative of my relationship to my sister my reproductions hold meaning as they are not mass produced by machines but made by my hand, imperfect but individual. Each one offering up the opportunity to hold new memories and connect with people in different ways.
Touch is important in my practice, working with my hands, sculpting, and carving, as well as enjoying the physicality of working with clay, rolling, pressing, and glazing, they all enable me to feel a connection to the process, that ability to make an impact, to transform. Curating, collecting, and reproducing artifacts, has inspired me to uncover the power everyday objects can hold, and find that these often-commonplace relics can serve to preserve memories and immortalise family members. The past is interwoven with the present and it can show us how we are connected to our roots and enhance our sense of identity and reinforce our connections to family and our heritage.
As John Berger says, “we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves” and I see my collections as a reflection of self, building a deeper portrait of my own history through objects.
