Artist Profile: Lotti V Closs
I am in my first year of the Master of Fine Art Postgraduate Degree at West Dean, specialising in Sculpture. I previously studied at Nottingham Trent University for my Bachelors Degree in Fine Art, graduating in 2009.
My practice investigates the relationships between material,
process and discipline, combining handcrafted or artisanal methods
with everyday or industrial resources. I am interested formally in
how we imbue significance or worth to an image, object or space,
frequently inspired by the imagery of myth and folklore, emblems
and symbols, ritual and ceremony, collections and modes of display.
The work I make is often informed by the relationship between style
and identity, and how the ideals or history of a generation,
culture or belief system can be encapsulated within its own visual
language.
I aim to question pre-conceived boundaries of discipline
aesthetic through exploring ideas of inherent or projected value
and function. Within this, I am currently exploring the role of the
decorative in contemporary art and culture, and how this affects
our attitudes to categorizing the world of objects around us. I
look to create work that has a sense of implacable familiarity,
working from re-interpretations of the recognisable against ideas
of the fictional or exotic.
In my first term at West Dean I have been able to take
advantage of its unique environment and resources, and have been
working with both visiting artists and other departments to learn
new practical skills and plan possible projects. Casting and Mould
making in a range of materials, and sculpting from large-scale
polystyrene have both informed new work and making techniques so
far.
