Artists: Austin Emery, Debora Mo and Deborah Gardner

Austin Emery




Debora Mo




Deborah Gardner

Title: Objects of Desire
Material: plaster, wax, resin
These objects all point to a collective understanding of Christian iconography, ritual and ceremony. The five loaves and two fishes for example reflect on accounts of the miracle of the Feeding of the Five Thousand and the scallop shell acts, from the middle ages onwards, as a symbol for pilgrimage. The translucent resin heart points to both a visceral acknowledgement of our earthly body and as a symbol of a person’s spiritual centre; this is set alongside hands held in prayer and another positioned to indicate blessing. The butterfly and the skull, speaks about both resurrection and death.

The objects are cast and through this process they act as physical memorials. Neutral in colour, at times translucent and at points using a mirrored, reflective surface, these objects oscillate between a solid and liquid state, blurring boundaries between static, physical embodiments and transcendent, spiritual states.

Deborah Gardner studied at Winchester School of Art, Canterbury College of Art and Newcastle University. She is presently a Lecturer in Art & Design at the University of Leeds. She is a member of LAND2, a national network for artists and academics, University of the West of England and University of Leeds and Sculpture Network, an international network based in Berlin. This year she will exhibit in several group exhibitions including ‘All over the Place’ at the Stanley and Audrey Gallery, University of Leeds, ‘European Sculpture: Diversity and Difference in Practice’ at the Nave Gallery, Turin, Italy and ‘European Identity’ at the Inselgalerie, Berlin. She has completed residencies in Australia and the UK and has exhibited widely in both solo and group exhibitions both internationally and in the UK.