SHelley Simpson

I make artwork exploring the connections between entities in the world through the matter that makes up bodies. I work with materials including minerals and metals to examine these relationships, and to draw attention to the ways in which these relationships manifest. For me, the processes occurring in the artwork are as important as the physical materials – processes that occur over time such as evaporation and other state changes, or that occur when one material is introduced to another.

I am drawn to these materials and processes because I am convinced that we, as humans, are not separate from the rest of the world, but are deeply embedded within it. As a Paakehaa living and working in Aotearoa New Zealand, I am the product of a long lineage of Western thought and philosophy that strives to place humans as outside the rest of ‘nature’. My art making is an attempt to place myself firmly back in the world. The materials that make up my body connect me to that beyond my skin, which itself is a porous membrane, temporarily holding me together while allowing for transfer across the skin.

I return again and again to the materials that exist inside my body, minerals and metals that support living systems such as iron, copper, and calcium. How do they behave in the world? Where are they from and what do they do? How does the mineral and metallic help us to recognise the connections between all?

I work with sculpture, installation and image making to explore these questions.

shelleysimpson.co.nz
@shelleylsimpsonartist