Justine Watt
sculpture ba hons
Edinburgh College of Art
Graduates: 2024
Specialisms: Installation/Sculpture / Contemporary Craft / Sustainable Design
My location: Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Justine Watt
First Name: Justine
Last Name: Watt
University / College: Edinburgh College of Art
Course / Program: sculpture ba hons
Graduates: 2024
Specialisms: Installation/Sculpture / Contemporary Craft / Sustainable Design
My Location: Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Website: Click To See Website
About
At the heart of my practice is a desire to transform mundane, domestic, yet profoundly intimate artifacts of our daily existence, considering the relationship between the corporeal and the crafted. The modularity of each sculpture facilitates the practicalities of assembly, but also imbues my work with a cyclical narrative, inviting reinterpretation. Recently I have been working with discarded beech chairs, destined for landfill. Using traditional woodworking methods, such as steam bending and kerfing, I aim to renew and regenerate these unwanted everyday objects, offering the viewer the chance to reappreciate them. The laborious processes inherent in my approach, steeped in repetition, renewal and meditative rhythm, evoke echoes of domesticity, the value of labour and timeless rituals of craftsmanship. I hope to spark joy and engagement and raise awareness of our collective responsibility towards the environment, ethical use of materials, and disrupt the inertia of our throwaway culture.
Once you get sawdust in your eye, it is difficult to get it out
For my degree show I deliberately intercepted beech chairs from landfill oblivion and carefully deconstructed them. By using traditional woodworking methods like steam bending and kerfing, I explore how running away with the circus and not following the artistic path I had originally pursued shaped my artistic identity. ‘Once you get sawdust in your eye, it is difficult to get it out’ refers to the sawdust used in the circus ring, and how circus life never leaves you. I revisited the sights and smells of this time of my life with painted wood sculptures that act as a biographical stage – playful and brightly coloured. The laborious processes inherent in my approach, steeped in repetition, renewal and meditative rhythm, evokes echoes of domesticity, the value of labour and the timeless rituals of craftsmanship. Through my practice, I endeavour to raise awareness of our collective responsibility towards the environment, the ethical use of materials, the implications of our daily choices and to disrupt the inertia of our throwaway culture.
Competitions
