Madeleine Thornton-Smith has training in painting and ceramics. 'Remediation' is re-forming an object in a material from which it wouldn’t usually be made. Thornton-Smith uses remediation to investigate medium specificity—in particular the location where, and the manner in which, one distinct medium ends and another begins.
Employing a slow process of accumulation and repetition, she uses slip-casting to bring together commonplace studio materials—bubble wrap, acrylic, polystyrene, expanding foam and concrete—with archetypal forms from fine art and ceramics—vessels, plinths, frames, canvases and tiles. This mimetic process challenges material hierarchies - a canvas or expanding foam is subverted through slip-casting – raising questions about the status and value of ceramics, art and craft.
Through an accumulation of experience and training in various mediums including painting, drawing, collage and ceramics, I try to bring different ways of working to the practice of object-making.
/ Madeleine Thornton-Smith