Polly Bennett - Canvas
92 x 184 cm, cotton, rust, hessian and bamboo, 2020
Polly allows rusty industrial artefacts, like buckles and nails to shed onto the canvas in water, so only traces are left. Mimicking the environment in which they were found: the Thames foreshore. The found objects once symbolised prosperity, trade and the movement of people globally. So it seemed fitting for the artwork to convey movement and portability. The artwork is photographed above the water, like a banner, publicising and celebrating the environment that inspired its creation.
Polly Bennett
Polly recreates experiences to represent the conditions of the landscape, with immediate observational responses produced 'in-situ’, and in collaboration with the rural environment. Recently she has focused on what the river Thames leaves behind, and how it holds history. She visits the Thames foreshore collecting Victorian clay pipes or rusty manufacturing instruments, which revive the memory of the individual who once made or used them. Manual work is integral to her practice, involving these found objects in a collated fashion which results in vessels of remembrance. Polly is based in London and completed a BA at City & Guilds of London Art School, followed by a fellowship for The Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers Decorative Surfaces.