Artist Statement
Rocks are a direct archive of our ecological history and therefore deeply geologically connected to humans. Polly Bates has found a myriad of relationships between humans and rocks, which include social connections to culture and spiritual beliefs, as well as biological connections, for example, kidney and gall stones within the human body are made of geology, calcium carbonate, which is a mineral also found in the Earth’s crust, limestone, coral, and fossils.
Bates' sculptural practice explores the experience of living in a geological era shaped by humanity. Bates is influenced by reading into the Anthropocene, Animism, and Gaia theory, as she explores human impact on the non-human world through the typical Western society's self-proclaimed hierarchy against nature. Bates encourages the uncanny to create an uncomfortable yet humorous response, which she utilises to subtly address sociocultural contexts and personal environmental anxieties.
Bates creates unglazed ceramic sculptures to reflect on human relationships to land, with clay representing a natural Earth material. She manipulates this natural material just as humans distort and transform landscapes, which become tools in our economy with little concern for degradation and exploitation.
Recognising the energy and agency of her materials, Bates explores sculpting as a collaboration between herself and the clay. She welcomes the material to react and begin to determine its own form. The unpredictable nature and agency of clay progresses into the firing process, where air pockets can cause cracks and breakages. The sculpture begins to evolve and alter its appearance without her influence.
Qualifications
2021-2023 MFA Fine Art with Distinction at Manchester Metropolitan University.
2017-2020 BA Honours Fine Art at Staffordshire University.
2016-2017 Foundation Art at Staffordshire University.
2015-2016 Art Craft and Design A Level EDEXCEL GCE at Dame Alice Owens School.
Polly Bates is the Founder and Curator of ARTISTS RESPONDING TO …
As an artist, one of Polly’s greatest passions is combining personal and shared social, environmental and political anxieties within her practice. Artistic expression can help us to realise and reveal flaws in our society, whilst also allowing us to reinvent ways of living and imagine a future without those flaws. This is one of the reasons that lead Polly to found ARTISTS RESPONDING TO ….
After graduating with her Fine Art Degree in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Polly was faced with the challenge of a drastic lack of opportunities for artists nationwide. As exhibitions were being cancelled and galleries were closing, she wanted to create a more digitised and accessible way of experiencing art. Polly also became frustrated with how Covid was overshadowing many other issues and paramount news. Combining these ideas, Polly created a monthly publication and Zine which uses creative depictions and literature to highlight current world issues, news and movements that aren't getting the attention that they deserve. A political and environmental platform to help ignite conversations and spread awareness through visual and written poetic responses.
ARTISTS RESPONDING TO … Zine included an eclectic range of fine art and literature ranging from drawings, paintings, sculptures, digital art, photography, essays, poems, and much more! Accepting international submissions that were creative responses to current monthly news, A.R.T Zine is a space for activism but also a form of information. Polly prides herself in providing a space for critical discussion and reflection, whilst also creating opportunities for artists to share and celebrate their work.
Since creating the monthly Zine, Polly has also initiated projects such as daily art and poetry challenges, competitions and The Postcard Project, where she sent 200 postcards across the UK to 200 artists and invited them to create an artwork responding to the turbulent year that was 2020. She has organised and published the project into a book and curated the 200 artworks into a pop-up exhibition in London, collaborating with The Net Gallery to produce a 3D Virtual Scan of the gallery.
In 2022, Polly launched ARTISTS RESPONDING TO… Magazine, a quarterly publication which combines contemporary art, culture and activism and features international artists and writers responding to environmental, political and social issues. The Magazine also includes interviews, must-see exhibitions, advice columns for early career artists, articles, reviews and essays.
Polly looks forward to creating even more exhibiting opportunities for ARTISTS RESPONDING TO …’s rapidly growing arts community. Now more than ever we need unity, community, a call for action and artistic expression. Hopefully, you will find all of that at A.R.T.
www.artistsrespondingto.co.uk @artistsrespondingto artistsrespondingto(at)outlook.com
For regular updates and more information on past, present and future projects, please visit Polly’s Instagram:
For more information on ARTISTS RESPONDING TO … please visit:
www.artistsrespondingto.co.uk and follow @artistsrespondingto on Facebook and Instagram