Sadie Brockbank – About My Work

While growing up paper, paints, glue and scissors were always readily available. This kind of mess wasn’t mess. It was absolutely allowed and encouraged, and as a result, my brother and I were often to be found in the kitchen, either on or under the table, busy making and drawing. I think this is why I feel a strong connection between the creative processes that I am now engaged in and with my early experiences of play. Indeed, playfulness itself is a prerequisite - a tool for exploration.

I spent three years studying painting at Falmouth School of Art where it gradually became clear that there was a burgeoning sculptor inside trying to get out. My canvasses started to twitter with small stuffed bird shapes, and strange clawed creatures began to emerge from the surface.

I used fabrics which I coloured and patterned, wax, wood, glue, and acrylic paints to build large colourful reliefs.

At the end of my degree I returned to London where I continued to work with these materials, however I expanded fully into the third dimension, building wood and plaster armatures for a series of textile sculptures. I joined ‘The 62 Group’, an organisation of textile artists, and exhibited at various venues including ‘Out of the Frame’ a show at the Crafts Council in September 1992.

A friend put me in touch with Sam Dalton (now working at the Crucible Foundry in Parsons Green, London) who had the kindness and patience to introduce me to the lost wax bronze casting process. From then onwards I have been casting both clay and wax originals into bronze.

My work has always been a way of expressing my thoughts and ideas about the experience of being human. I have often looked for inspiration to the wealth of ancient art from all around the globe, particularly rock art, Greek, Roman and Egyptian figurative work, Native American art and the art of the Aborigines of Australia.

I maintain my passion for colour through the medium of 2D collage, and regularly seek the refreshment of switching between the two disciplines. With my collages I strive to find a harmony between colour vibrations and compositional balance, working with fabric and paper, often previously coloured or dyed using acrylic paints and sometimes enamel and emulsion. I like to create a large ‘palette’ of samples before starting, allowing an element of the haphazard to enter, as I select the different coloured and patterned pieces scattered before me, watching for interesting vibrations and contrasts.