Liz Clifford 

Liz is an artist based in Hampshire working with reclaimed materials, and those she finds in the landscape. She makes multidisciplinary responses to that landscape.

‘The subject matter and material for my work is the human-made detritus I collect on my daily walk in The South Downs National Park, the materiality of those objects, the act of walking and the hills themselves. Repetitive focus on the immediate landscape and geology, as well as concerns around fossil-fuelled recreation, plastic-waste, and erosion inform my practice. The three-dimensional pieces are made directly with found objects and found materials both on site, as interventions, and in the studio. They often have a twodimensional graphic, photographic and video element to accompany them. The work is concerned, on a micro level, with a very narrow locale and very specific objects, but on the macro level with discourse about geological time, climate change and environmental breakdown.’

 

Liz has shown her work online over the past year and widely in Hampshire over recent years. She is currently completing her Fine Art MA at UCA Farnham.

 

In Free Fall. 2021. GIF

What falls from this sky does not hit the ground. The lost balloon is in constant free fall towards an imaginary stable ground. ‘While falling, people may sense themselves as being things, while things may sense that they are people. Assuming there is no ground, even those at the bottom of hierarchies keep falling.’ Hito Steyerl

 

Becoming Geology. 2021. Sculpture in snow.

This work, Becoming Geology, is concerned with humanity’s significant and increasing modification of Earth systems. That breaching of the boundaries, leading to bio-diversity collapse, climate breakdown and health pandemics. Evidence is gathered by large scale research projects as well as by amateur observers of local phenomena. All materials in this work were found by the artist in a specific rural location and are presented in the proportion 1:10 biomass to human-generated deposits. Four free-standing structures constructed from stacked gabion baskets are filled with rock, concrete, plastic and metal detritus, as well as living organic material. The blanket of fallen snow hides the true nature of what lies within the upper layers.