Anna Bush Crews
NOR Swirl
2023

About the Item

Ceramic sculpture of combined clay bodies, unique processes developed by Anna Bush Crews, looks to inherent qualities in the material, the way it smoothes, or not, the way it stretches or breaks up in actions that make the shapes and form the sculpture, the way it looks next to another clay body, the way it fires, the way it shrinks and changes. All in all, there are infinite variables. This has led me to expect the unexpected and be open to what happens—demanded by the characteristics of the clay, and the processes that can result in surprises. Intuition plays a large part, with my hands and ideas working together. The bare clay over forms references the processes of geological time, changes that come through heat and pressure. Now on a small, human scale, the sculpture that I make tries to harness the magic of the endlessly moving and changing earth. In an ongoing body of work, NOR (Nature Of Reality), I consider the layering inherent in everything, the compressing, melding, distorting, and resulting changes that happen through the process of life, human and geological. A balance of forms, an asymmetry with balance, is an intention. My work as an lecturer in photography started in Zambia in the mid ‘70s and continued in different settings and various teaching situations in Botswana, England and Wales, becoming a Senior Lecturer at the Newport School of Art & Design, University of Wales, at that time having a large photography program. I have had the opportunity to live in cultures not my own and this has given me valuable perspectives, and a breadth of references not always instantly accessible as such, but there, hiding in the folds of time, lurking, changing, and reforming, influencing what presents itself in the present. Photography has given me the opportunity to look, study, and be present in looking at what is before me. 1250

Creator:

Anna Bush Crews (1948, American)

Creation Year:

2023

Dimensions:

Height: 17 in (43.18 cm)Width: 7.5 in (19.05 cm)Depth: 7 in (17.78 cm)

Medium:

Ceramic

Movement & Style:

Abstract

Period:

2010-