Sea Fever Ceramics (Steffie Haynes)

My work draws upon deep time and its echoes that we find in rocks, fossils and geological formations. Particular landscapes form a personal geography that also strongly influences the pathways in my practice. Some of these are well-travelled: known in minute and familiar detail. Some are imagined or ancient, yet imprinted in my psyche nonetheless.

I am intrigued by how our humanish relations eked out their lives in tough conditions. Why, despite this, they felt compelled to make marks, create sculpture, carve and fill their environment with symbolism. In every corner of the globe, art has been part of us since before we were us.

Across time and space, ancient voices of our ancestors, both human and elemental, speak to us. The fungal threads, the deep-rooted oaks, the well-travelled ocean upwellings and the wandering weather systems. Their messages are always there, if we know how to read the landscape.

When we walk upon the earth, we cultivate connections to ancestral environments. Our feet tread ghosts of seabeds. This energy guides us, whether we are aware of it or not. My work invites you to stay grounded in a turbulent world.

I strive to blur the lines between discovery and creation. Did someone make it or unearth it? Is it man-made or natural? The closer you look, the more you will see...