Polly Bennett - Token
75 x 24 cm, resin and Thames clay, 2020
Continuing her exploration of Memory Jugs, Polly has made a panel re-visualising imprints from Thames found objects as a language or symbols, to represent and remember the history of the Thames, much like tokens. A token, or token of remembrance, being an object acquired for the memories associated with it. It is very common to find love tokens, often engraved coins, in the Thames, having been thrown in for good luck or rejection. They are mysterious and cryptic objects bringing to mind questions and stories.
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.