Hetty Laycock’s artistic practice (Cambridge, 1997) explores the organic landscape in its formal, relational and material aspects, with the aim of triggering a process of perpetual care and exchange with it. Incorporating experiences from art, science and architecture, the artist conveys a holistic vision of phenomena in her works, inviting us to perceive the complexity and interdependence of ecosystems.
Hetty’s sculptures show specificity of the organic world, highlighting the inter-collaboration and, at the same time, the precariousness of natural systems, in which each “node” takes on fundamental importance for the entire structure. The forms are crystallizations of the becoming of matter, manifestations of cycles and vortices, from the growth of plants to sound vibrations, from ocean currents to the expansion of galaxies. They feed on structures and flows of different entities: the movement of wind and water, the formation of ice crystals, the growth of mosses, leaf structures, flocks of starlings. The artist draws from these suggestions to generate forms that reveal a profound understanding with the materials and reflect nature’s capacity for self-organization. These are polymorphic structures in which the landscape manifests in multiple expressions of itself.
Hetty’s sculptural practice has recently moved towards further collaboration with living material, experimenting with the growth of plant life directly on terracotta and the creation of environments conducive to the crystallisation of salt on sculptures. This “natural colonization” of ceramic surfaces occurs when organic elements interact with the medium: mold, salts, fungi, plants, algae and insects can take over, transforming the sculpture into something living and undermining the dichotomies of art and nature , human and non-human.
Through environmental exercises of coexistence, proximity and care, Hetty investigates the potential of ceramics to promote biodiversity and ecological balance, exploring the art and science of biomimicry within sculptural practice. The resulting works therefore contribute positively to the surrounding ecosystem and initiate a process of continuous exchange with it.
Involved in a series of exhibitions that have seen her move between England, Italy and China, Hetty Ann Laycock (Yorkshire, 1997) is currently a member of the cultural association Zolforosso, based in Venice, Italy.