In Conversation - Effie Burns, Jill Tate & Katy Cole from SOLID MATTER
From left: Jill Tate, Effie Burns & Katy Cole
Our Gallery Manager, Rosie Morris, speaks to SOLID MATTER artists Effie Burns, Jill Tate and Katy Cole to learn more about their ideas behind their work and their ways of working.
Effie Burns, Tiny pair of parasol mushrooms (showing one of pair in hand and small peach one below)
“To hold and try to freeze something so transient feels magical.”
Effie Burns, Big Mushroom, gilded with 23.5 carat gold, foraged in Robin Hood’s Bay
Rosie: When we were putting the show together, as well as thinking about the premise ‘ As above, so below’, it felt important to focus on the different expanding levels for how we connect to being-in-the-world, through holding and being contained or enveloped.
Effie, your work seems to have developed from an early interest in the love of collecting small tangible ‘things’. What is it about these earthly objects that is so important for you to both capture and transform?
Effie: I began to make miniature things during lockdown, as an act of rebellion really, making things that could be held in the palm of your hand, things that could be brought home in my pockets. It became about exploring the quiet poetry of the everyday. These familiar yet tiny objects that were made to be touched. Which is the privilege of being a collector, the rearranging and placing of things, the dialogue they have with each other. The emotional content of my work has become very important to me, particularly working through lockdown. It’s moving to find something like these tiny parasol mushrooms growing like stars at dusk in a fairy ring. They only bloom for 24 hours, once you notice one you start to notice others. To hold and try to freeze something so transient feels magical.
Rosie: Could you say a bit more about this process of how you make the works?
Effie: Casting is an ancient way of shaping glass, done long before the Romans invented glassblowing. It is very similar to the bronze casting process. I make a mould around the original organic object and then I burn it out in my kiln, so that it turns to ash, leaving the perfect negative of the original. In a second firing I place tiny terracotta plant pots over the moulds. I fill each one with chunks of glass. The glass melts through the hole in the bottom of the plant pot and into the mould. This is called reservoir casting.
Katy, there’s a similar detail and scale in the works you make, but of course you’re depicting something on a far greater or even infinite scale. We’ve spoken together about this problem with edges, can you tell us more about how your works evolve?
Katy: Yes, edges have always posed difficulties! The physical proportions of my work have certainly reduced over the years, and the need to contain/create limitations increased. I can relate to Effie talking about being able to hold objects in the palm of your hand, although perhaps for different reasons. For me there is definitely an element of the need for boundaries involved!
Relating to Science Fiction, I feel like each drawing, painting or object is a kind of short story. A tiny world or ecosystem, isolated within its own narrative. This is perhaps my own way of attempting to gain some level of control or understanding over the subject matter.
Jill Tate paints
“My use of earth pigments relates to our emergence from, and return to the Earth, which can be a metaphor for a deeper truth.”
I’m aware for all of you the choice of materials is very considered, in particular for Jill and Effie. Was this always a deliberate aspect of your practice or was there a turning point when this interest began to shape the work?
Jill: When I began painting I used acrylics and a full range of colours, however I wanted a way to unify the apparent separateness of things and to get at something more fundamental. Moving into a monochrome palette of warm, earth colours happened organically, as did making my own paint from natural pigment powders and linseed oil. My use of earth pigments relates to our emergence from, and return to the Earth, which can be a metaphor for a deeper truth. The materials I choose are an important aspect of my work, so that there’s a coherence between the underlying ideas and how the work manifests physically.
Effie: The process of working with glass is really about transformation. I find that I continually refer to it as a magical material. Glass as a material has completely changed how we see the world from microscope slides to telescope lenses, it reveals things that can’t be seen with the naked eye.
Katy, when I was researching for the show, I discovered that graphite (carbon), comes from dying stars, which relates directly to your imagery. Would you say you were conscious of using graphite for this reason in your work?
Katy: Drawing has always been the fundamental basis for my art practice, the starting point from which everything else develops, so whilst It wasn’t a conscious choice in medium for previous works, it has definitely become more important in recent years. Although I use a variety of materials in my work, I love the simplicity and ease of using graphite but also the complexity and intricacy of the results. It was the perfect lockdown tool as all I needed was a little space, some pencils and paper to keep working.
Carbon is common to all known life, and so it is everything. I like to think of this as my (and my work’s) tiny link to what lies beyond our boundaries, yet there is something about using graphite from the earth that feels grounding in the overwhelming nature of this context.
“ My interest predominantly lies in Science fiction and I can’t claim to have a scientific knowledge of astronomy! I find myself preoccupied with human attitudes toward the unfathomable vastness that surrounds us. ”
Katy Cole, Crystalline, pencil and mixed media on paper, 16.5” x 9 11/16”, framed
Rosie: Your work has a humorous quality for me, I can see both a beautiful and demonstrous sense of awe in the works you create, which seems synonymous with the idea of a dying star. For me, your work deals with both human capabilities, and our ultimate insignificance against a mind-blowing backdrop of endless matter. Can you tell us a bit more about where your interests come from?
Katy: There is definitely a humorous side…the beauty of the source imagery I often use is in conflict with what I see as the darker side of the human relationship with space exploration. I think this is more overt in my collage work, and is pared down in the intricacy of some of the scaled down painting and drawing works. My interest predominantly lies in Science fiction and I can’t claim to have a scientific knowledge of astronomy! I find myself preoccupied with human attitudes toward the unfathomable vastness that surrounds us.
Jill Tate, Changing Room, oil on canvas, 51 x 61cm, 2020
Rosie: Jill, in your work as well, there is this dual interpretation, could you say a bit more about the psychological space you intend to create in your works?
Jill: I like to leave room for interpretation, as an aspect of my work is the unlimited potential for different viewpoints and opinions, which are relative as opposed to concrete or certain. I’m interested in the notion that everything is based in consciousness and that solid matter is an illusion generated by the mind. Tables and chairs are often given as examples as familiar objects that we consider solid, which is one of the reasons I include them in my work. Psychologists and philosophers often also compare the mind to a room or a series of rooms, and so these metaphors resonate with me on a number of levels. You can think of the mind as an interior space where things, or thoughts, can happen. It can have an atmosphere, be dark or bright, cluttered or peaceful. I’m also interested in how we inhabit different external spaces and how the spaces we encounter can influence how we feel and behave.
Rosie: I know you’ve spent several years working as an architectural photographer, Jill, how does this feed into your work in terms of both ideas and process?
Jill Tate, Sit In, plant-based acrylic on paper, 17 x 25cm, 2022
Jill: It has influenced my approach in terms of lighting and composition, perhaps more in an intuitive way after years of looking at architecture and furniture from different angles. The photos I take for my paintings are a bit more relaxed in that I rarely use a tripod. As I’m working with scale models it’s sometimes easier to use a smaller camera, which is fine as the photos don’t need to be very high quality for my use. The influence has probably been more in the happy accidents or unexpected things that registered somewhere in my mind and were stored for later use. I remember once setting up a living room very neatly for a photograph, but the scene behind the camera was in complete disarray with stuff piled on the table and the chair tipped over. I liked the contrast between the two halves of the room, one side presented tidily to the world with nothing out of place, and the other side showing the chaotic reality.
Rosie: I love this! I wonder if behind the scenes of all of your meticulous practices there’s a chaotic reality…?
SOLID MATTER: Effie Burns, Jill Tate & Katy Cole runs until 24th June, 2023. All works are available for sale, prices start from £65
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