The geological landscape around us is always in a state of flux. It shifts and wears constantly. In Finding Ground, Rebecca Steedman presents a series of objects, cast in clay, alongside a digital imagining of the ground from these objects came. In her ceramic works, the artist has taken pressings of volcanic rocks, lava flows and landslides, as well as incorporating volcanic material, ash and iron sand into the clay from which these objects are made. These additions and alterations are intended to emphasise the fickleness, the unpredictability of the world at hand. Of concern here is the uncertain ‘ground’ upon which one might stand, from which one might feel confident enough to make claims about the world. The online component of this work is a series of concrete poems comprised of found texts. Language is pushed to the edge of meaning; stories, here, might be pieced together as if from the point of view of a cynic, imagining the dissolution of the known world, or an optimist, imagining the possibility of a new world in its place.

​

http://findingground.org/​

 

Rebecca Steedman has a multi-disciplinary artistic practice; with an ongoing interest in methods and materials that explore our knowledge and experience of place. She is based in Tāmaki Makaurau, and holds an MFA from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland. Rebecca currently teaches within the Graphic Design Department at Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design. Rebecca is currently a member of the RM Gallery and Project Space directorial collective, Auckland. Recent projects include Building Stones, Window, Auckland, 2017; Tectonic crust cake/calcite future aquatic with Kristen Dryburgh, Window, Auckland, 2016; SkyRadio, RM, Auckland, 2014. In 2019, Steedman will take up a residency with Blue Oyster Art Project Space, Dunedin.