Statement
My work is driven by two main preoccupations: the human relationship with our environment, and the materials with which I choose to work. I like using vernacular materials such as broken branches, discarded plastic packaging, or plastic grocery bags, and casting them in building materials as a way of exposing them to a new scrutiny.
I place these casts into situations and environments in which they do not belong, and in arrangements and juxtapositions that pull from our long history of enclosing the outdoors in open arrangements to create ritual spaces in nature.
Fossilization occurs naturally with limestone and minerals, yet my casts of everyday objects are of concrete, the ubiquitous material of modernity. I imagine that one day they might end up buried as geological relics, in the Anthropocene strata along with the metal, glass and steel of our cities, for future archeologists to rediscover.
What will our future environments and habitats be like, on this planet or the next?
— Alison Jardine, 2022.
“Alison Jardine’s concrete sculptures are simultaneously (and perplexingly) playful and somber. Cast into pieces of found plastic debris, these relief sculptures from the artist’s Urban Flora series monumentalize the careless, yet distinct folds of trash bags. Although initially deceptive, the swiftest of second glances reveals that what looks to be a stretched plastic bag is actually concrete. This paradoxical preservation of the insignificant remnants of our consumer culture is only one of many tantalizing dichotomies in Jardine’s work. The sculptures meld geometric and organic forms, are at once seemingly indestructible and fragile, and explore themes of permanence and temporality. In drawing upon minimalist aesthetics, feminist theory, and the dark humor of British pop art, Jardine seeks to create ‘objects from a future past’ that give voice to the achievements and pitfalls of our Anthropocene era.” Read more…
by Georgia Erger
(Courtauld Institute, Southern Methodist University)
From an article/interview published by Peripheral Vision Arts.