Amy Stephens: Persistence of Land

Underpinned by a fascination with geology and travel, Amy Stephens is interested in how we reuse, recycle, and re-appropriate materials from our daily environment. Using photography and collage, works emerge through stages of exploration, materialising as three-dimensional structures. These monolithic forms, or geological artefacts, generate a new perspective on the passing of time and our appreciation of the landscape.

Persistence of Land brings together a series of works that culminated from a trip to Carrara in Italy. Struck by giant off-cuts of marble discarded at the base of a quarry, one tonne of surplus rock plucked from the mountain now rests on the gallery floor, framed by a series of black and white photographs incorporating her signature coloured forms.

 

Raising questions surrounding context and artistic intention, Stephens' work asks the viewer to be attentive to what is happening beneath the surface, our impact upon that natural world and how we appropriate it for our own purpose.