NICOLA BUXTON
My recent work has been inspired by a residency at Crear in Argyll with The Southbank Sinfonia. The orchestra were rehearsing and performing Peter and the Wolf by Prokoviev and Haydn’s Symphony 103, The Drum Roll. During this time I was able to sketch and draw them during rehearsal and also had the privilege of running art workshops with four of the musicians in the forest with school children from 50 local schools. The experience was utterly magical and I hoped to have conjured up some of this in the narrative and imagery of the work.
My work has always attempted to capture a moment in time, things both rising and falling, being created or being destroyed, being knitted together or fragmenting. It was fascinating, therefore, to be able to take the dynamics of the orchestra as my subject matter in this context, their relationship to the conductor, surrounding landscape and audience. I am interested in paths of energy and movement and try to express this in the form of the work through the way that it is balanced and constructed.
I work in a range of materials. As well as some casting work in bronze, I make constructions out of steel, beeswax, found materials, paper, plaster and wire. Being able to read the process of making is a vital contribution to the finished piece. Drawing is also an integral part of my work, building up and taking away layers, playing with scale and space and making marks that take on different energies and rhythms.