‘On Thin Soil’
The layers of materials in this work have been collected during my daily walk on Byway 745 in the Hampshire Hangers, part of The South Downs National Park. From the bedrock of chalk through human-generated deposits of brick, steel, concrete and abundant plastic to the thin layer of soil, moss, beech tree and air, the work references the ‘critical zone’ as defined by earth system scientists and explored politically by the late Bruno Latour. The zone, a few kilometres thick, between the lower atmosphere and the upper bedrock, in which life on earth occurs. The beech sapling was ‘rescued’ during Covid lockdown from where it had seeded in the path of recreational 4 x 4 vehicles. It is now over 2 years old and growing on thin soil over a layer of plastic waste found in the same spot. It represents that fragile proportion of biomass to human-generated deposits (1:10) that is present in an average square metre of the Earth’s surface (Jan Zalasiewicz “Anthropocene Square Meter”). The work is a record of a specific place and the forces and agents acting on it but it also has a more universal message to convey about the legacy of human activity on the planet, coupled with hope of regeneration represented by the colonising moss and small living tree.
“Liz Clifford’s practice amalgamates found objects, flora and detritus in caged durational sculptures that resist being contained. These socio-geological studies speak directly to the climate crisis and the effect of the Anthropocene on our Earth. Through spillages onto the spaces they inhabit, the works remind us of the fallacy of controlling the land, as it seeps through the hands of its controller.” Ricardo Reverón Blanco. Curator and Programme Manager at Aspex Portsmouth.
Find out more about Liz and her work via these links:
www.axisweb.org/p/lizclifford/
https://lizcliffordart.wordpress.com/
littleforestlandart.wordpress.com 