Lucy Hodgson – Statement

My work is an anti-technology statement in the service of environmentalism. The things that I make are primarily conglomerations of organic materials and bits of architectural elements salvaged from demolition sites. The materials are generally biodegradable; my work is intentionally impermanent and its value lies only in the aesthetic merit and the concept that it conveys. What we throw away can say more about us than the things that we spend our time accumulating. The intention, not the monetary worth or the sculpture’s permanence, is what must speak to the viewer and a sculpture must address some issue of human experience. I have done a series of wave like pieces made of discarded wooden shingles to exhibit on a World Heritage site that had been battling the encroaching seas in the Netherlands for centuries. They are pieces that represent the malevolent power of weather and water. Some others define objects of significance in ornate wooden, painted frames as a comment on values that should either be preserved or abandoned. More recently I have used industrial objects and materials in pieces that imply functionality, but don’t really do anything as a comment on the hubris of a culture that is forgetting from whence it comes.