Elizabeth Wright

Biography

In part, artistic practices attribute value to processes that can be broadly grouped into the categories of mimesis, the copy and copying. The means by which this is articulated within the development of 3D digital reproductive workflows is the focus of Elizabeth Wright’s studio, public work and research. This can involve producing physical and digital sculptures based on reprographic technical objects and their intersection with lived space. Here, the object selection is secondary to site, where relative location is the priority.

The means and the nature of this sculptural production is dependent on its specific site or 'local surroundings’ using methods more often concerned with photographic documentary inscription and objective non-intervention. The techniques of photographic image construction: copy, scale, crop, focus and angle of view or framing are reapplied to the encountering of the digital or physical site and the re-rendering of the object. This point of site/object intersection is the centre of her enquiry, as the copy becomes both evolutionary and dynamic, articulating new apparatus and methods for disseminating sculpture.

Exhibiting internationally since 1995 she has been commissioned to make both temporary and permanently sited art projects, working with curators in the public realm, Locus +, Commissions East, the Tyndall Centre UEA and with architectural practices, FAT and MUF. More recent projects include collaborating with Backspace, with a shift in emphasis toward developing community ‘toolkits’ that enable interested groups to use offline wireless networks allowing them to register their own local histories by building and hosting a ‘Digital Marker’.

Research into the pedagogy of sculpture intersects both her studio based, practice and her public works. The project StudioN, functions as both virtual open studio and research in art education ‘commoning’. Establishing the conditions that can enable collective 3D experience through computing, as a shared platform, it sets out to collapse the sector divisions that exist between Primary, Secondary and Higher Education. As children and young adults are accessing and interacting with 3D virtual worlds at a younger age, these interactions impact on the formation of their understanding of the real world, 3D materials and spaces. Educators across sectors are direct witness’ to this affect, the StudioN project sets out to build a responsive student access curriculum that both adapts to the learners digital computing encounters and supports them in building 3D modelling skills that can enhance social cohesion within their collective educational environment.