BEKKY MAY

Cluster Exhibitor | Cluster Contemporary | 2022

With a background in horticulture, Bekky has always enjoyed getting her hands in the earth. In her studio, she merges her passion for the natural world with her love of designing and making.

At the heart of her creative concept is The Biophilia Effect, which relates to our primal instinct for a connection with the natural world, a subject she studied in depth during her recent Masters in Craft. The intention of her ceramic work is to reflect on the psychology of this human urge for a closeness with the wilderness.

Her studio is nestled on a farm in the Sussex countryside, surrounded by rolling hills and woodlands. Her daily interactions with this environment provide a calming flow of inspiration, which she mindfully channels into her creative practice. Through her work, she encourages us to share our living and working spaces with Biophilic Art.

Initially she creates small test forms, such as 3D sketches. From these she develops larger versions, using a solid block of clay. This process of sculpting the clay is a slow, gentle and mindful process, whereby she explores the curves, the troughs, the outline of the form. These organic, asymmetrical forms grow over several days, sometimes weeks. She sculpts gradually as the clay slowly becomes harder and she is able to get sharper and cleaner angles.

Over the last few months Bekky has developed a new range of work, inspired by her walks on the beach near her home. Picking up pebbles and holding them in her hand, mindfully turning them over and exploring their shape gives information about the form that nature has given each pebble. In the studio she aims to translate the experience of holding these pebbles into sculptures.

She uses these forms to create plaster moulds to slip-cast porcelain slip, which enables her to make a hollow whole piece bringing the negative form to life. Working on the surface is a new element in this body of work, whereby she allows herself to be freer and more instinctive as she splashes contrasting slip onto the form. After a very controlled process from the start, she allows herself to be more open to chance.