Artist Interview: Amy-Leigh Bird ‘The Psychology of Collecting, The Emotional Significance of Objects and Place’
“The subject matter of my work has remained consistent since I was studying at university. During my degree I was exploring the psychology of collecting and art within the domestic setting. I was exploring the notion that the earliest artistic impulses involved recognising and ascribing value to objects that we find around us, for example: rocks, bones, wood and natural pigments such as those that are preserved in caves around the world today. There is something innate in the human condition, which compels us to bring precious things into our homes and living spaces to present and preserve. For millennia, human homes have contained areas in which to display the things we value. More recently, I have explored themes of waste and the perception of value, in the hope of reconnecting people with place, nature, and with objects, perceptions which they may have lost sight of in a time of rapid change and disposability.”
Senem Cagla Bilgin: Could you please tell me about yourself and your background?
Amy-Leigh Bird: My name is Amy-Leigh Bird and I am a 25-year-old artist living and working in London. I grew up in Hampshire and studied art throughout school and college and completed my first degree at The Glasgow School of Art in 2013 to study Painting & Printmaking. Subsequently, I completed a Masters degree in Creative Entrepreneurship at The University of East Anglia.
As a child, the idea of becoming anything particularly successful was a distant fantasy, a dream. Growing up on a council estate meant that as a budding artist, I didn’t have access to resources in the industry, like money or contacts. What I did have and loved, were opportunities to visit places and parts of England’s deep history, spending time with my grandmother in her home, which was almost a living museum and informed by a lived historical imperative to keep, not to waste and not to consume.
SCB: As a multidisciplinary artist, what kind of medium do you work with? What’s the dialogue between photo, print, and sculpture in your works?
AMB: I have always enjoyed photography, ever since I was child and I was given a small digital camera to take pictures whilst out on walks with my dad. I remember sitting at his desk after a day out uploading all the pictures we had taken. We would sit and look through them together, discussing which ones where good and bad, explaining to each other why we liked them or not.
Taking pictures has always felt like the right way to start for me. For some people, it’s sketchbooks, or small paintings, but for me, it’s the humble photograph. When I studied printmaking at art school and realised that I could combine both my digital images with the process of printmaking, it was a eureka moment. I love the hands on approach that both printmaking and sculpture have. In more ways than not, sculpture and printmaking go hand in hand.
I love material and I love objects. The reason I adore mudlarking so much is because it’s a very hands- on experience. You are there, with the wind on your face and the dirt on your hands. I like the tactility that the bones have. They are light, beautifully coloured and smoothed over by the rushing tides. With my printmaking I can take an object and manipulate the way people perceive them by zooming into certain areas and printing it in different colours, but the bones themselves are beautiful for what they are, and that is where my sculptural work comes into play. The sculptural works are about elevating the object and giving it a new way of being seen and appreciated. The object does most of the work; I am just there to facilitate that process.
SCB: How did you choose the subject matter for your work included in ‘This Place Where I Stand’ at No20 Gallery? What does your work aim to say?
AMB: The subject matter of my work has remained consistent since I was studying at university. During my degree I was exploring the psychology of collecting and art within the domestic setting. I was exploring the notion that the earliest artistic impulses involved recognising and ascribing value to objects that we find around us, for example: rocks, bones, wood and natural pigments such as those that are preserved in caves around the world today. There is something innate in the human condition, which compels us to bring precious things into our homes and living spaces to present and preserve. For millennia, human homes have contained areas in which to display the things we value. More recently, I have explored themes of waste and the perception of value, in the hope of reconnecting people with place, nature, and with objects, perceptions which they may have lost sight of in a time of rapid change and disposability. This exploration of topics stems from an innate and deep-rooted understanding of material value. Coming from a place where money was always tight and material objects were far and few between, I grew up appreciating the very little that I did have and that which was free. Collectively the three of us are inspired by our landscapes and environments; the places with which we are most familiar. We have a shared understanding of our sense of place, the importance it has in each of our lives, and that is what brings us together. The pieces which I am showing draw upon these themes.
Amy-Leigh Bird, Thames Painting I, 2020 (Detail)
SCB: Let’s talk about our material possessions considering your research on the psychology of collecting and the emotional significance of objects and place. Zygmunt Bauman began to explore postmodernity and consumerism in the late ’90s. He posited that an object is cultural if it persists; its temporary aspect, its permanence, is opposite to the functional [...] culture sees itself threatened when all the objects in the world, those produced today and those of the past, are exclusively considered from the point of view of utility for the social process of survival. How would you link your research to this statement? Do you think the objects you collect and display as artwork can be a part of a culture?
AMB: Patterns of consumerism and excess are inherent to human civilisation. I aspire to merge the cultural and the functional. I do not necessarily recognise the same distinction between the two that Bauman does.
When we treat the functional and the cultural as the same entity, it helps us to recognise the vernacular usage that these objects were a part of. Whereas an old master’s painting can tell one, or maybe a handful, of detailed stories about the past, it doesn’t tell you about the thousands of gritty everyday experiences of the many that have lived and worked rich but ordinary lives beside the river. When I look at the graveyard of bones on the Thames foreshore, I see a window into the myriad lives of Londoners hundreds and thousands of years ago.
I address the question issue of visibility in my art, in so far as it evokes a sense of empathy, and rootedness in our surroundings. It has been suggested that my use of bones links my work to the London meat industry from the past to today. Before there were industrial processes for slaughtering livestock, people were used to either killing their own food or seeing it killed openly. Nowadays, the meat industry is hidden away and kept separate from its consumption. Thus alienated from the production, consumers perhaps lack an empathy they may have had in times past. If my work re- presents the reality of our consumption within the same context of it’s production then maybe that can regenerate a greater awareness of the lives that are lost behind closed doors. This in turn can act as a synecdoche for the whole of the experiences of ordinary London lives. In a way I feel a deeper connection to my history when I am mudlarking and I know that it is very easy in such a disconnected world to lose that relationship with the past and present.
I also use bones in my work for their shock value. The exposure and realisation of mass consumption today is terrifying, and using the bones in my work emphasises this point, because they themselves are shocking. To me they are macabre in a very beautiful way and I hope that others can see the value in what is generally considered to be dead and worthless.
Amy-Leigh Bird ‘Small Amusement’, 2020 Photopolymer Etching Print 55cm x 50cm, on Arches Paper.
SCB: You strongly believe that the only way for people to dispose of the waste in today’s world is by investing more value in the materials that we consider as waste. How is your relationship with sustainable life? Is there anything specific that you do to reduce the use of the Earth’s natural and personal resources?
AMB: We could all do more to make our environment a more sustainable and environmentally friendly place. I am no eco warrior, but I try my best to create environmentally friendly pieces and have implemented changes in my personal life and in my practice to accompany this state of mind.
Using objects I have found on the foreshore such as shells and bones and clay pipes means that I spend very little and consume very few materials for my sculptures. I buy glue and varnish and base structures that support my sculptures, but other than that I use the material that I have collected to create the work. The collecting doesn’t stop there though, being the natural treasure hunter that I am, I often find materials on the street that I will use and re-purpose. I recently found four huge canvas stretchers, which I have used for my paintings in my current show at No20 Art Gallery and will use for my upcoming show at Avivson Gallery.
When it comes to my printmaking, I made the change to go more environmentally friendly years ago. It’s a controversial topic around the studio, but it’s becoming an increasingly important conversation to have. I was taught how to etch traditionally with acids, but I quickly adopted Photopolymer Etching as it’s a safer way to create beautiful prints using just warm water to develop your plate. I have also recently changed my etching inks for water-soluble alternatives, rather than oil based which require solvents to clean up. This may not sound like much, but for me it’s a start; it’s the small changes that I believe will make a big difference. It’s important for me as an artist to set an example for others and make the most of environmentally friendly alternatives.
Amy-Leigh Bird ‘Bleak Beauty’, 2021
Found bones and clear fishing wire 153cm x 158cm Sculpture/Installation
Amy-Leigh Bird graduated from the Painting & Printmaking BA Hons at The Glasgow School of Art in 2017 and in 2019 graduated from her MA in Creative Entrepreneurship with a distinction at The University of East Anglia. Whilst studying Amy-Leigh lived and studied in Jerusalem, Israel at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design and has taken part in several group and solo exhibitions including her first solo show at The Anise Gallery, Shad Thames, The Other Art Fair London and at The West End Centre. After her graduation she was selected for Aon’s ‘Community Artist Award 2017’ and awarded the ‘Artist in Italy Residency 2018’ where she spent ten luxurious days walking about the Tuscan landscape collecting inspirational material for her work.
Since graduating, the award-winning artist has exhibited alongside Christian Boltanski at the Apple and the Lust Gallery in Edinburgh, at The Edinburgh Art Fair and at An Lanntair in Stornoway, after taking part in a two-week sailing residency with Sail Britain. This year she focuses on developing her research on the bones found on the Thames foreshore. She is currently living and working in London, developing her research on the psychology of collecting and the emotional significance of objects and place.
Amy Leigh-Bird takes interest in the detritus on the shores of rivers, seas, and lakes, which are regularly ignored by fellow mudlarkers and beach scavengers alike. She strongly believes that the only way for people to dispose the waste in today’s world is by investing more value in the materials that we consider as waste. Through art, we can reveal new perspectives by elevating these materials beyond images of neglect.