Artist Statement
Working primarily with bronze alongside living matter and scent, my practice develops through sensuous encounters with the landscape. I am drawn to the complexity and strangeness of the living forms I find there, and to the conditions, rhythms and exchanges through which our lives intersect. Making becomes a way of dwelling in these encounters, the slow, sustained labour of sculpture itself an act of attention and care. Though implicated in landscape destruction, bronze preserves the intricate natural forms made vulnerable by ecological change, lending weight and presence to beings that can easily pass unnoticed. Its mineral origins invoke dimensions beyond perceptual reach, carrying geological time alongside the ancient biological histories of the organisms I cast. Remaining closely involved with them over the course of this process deepens my sense of intimacy and relatedness with the living world. In turn, this continually renews an instinctive curiosity and immediacy of contact that can become obscured by the momentum of the everyday. The sculptures extend this way of meeting the world beyond my own experience by opening the possibility of greater attunement to other beings.
Artist Biography
Raya Gray (b. 1996) is a Scottish artist based in Glasgow, working primarily in sculpture and installation. She recently graduated from the MA Sculpture programme at the Royal College of Art, having been awarded The Deputy Vice-Chancellor’s UK Scholarship. Prior to this, she completed a BA (Hons) in Painting and Printmaking at The Glasgow School of Art with First-Class Honours. During a recent bronze casting residency at Silverback Bronze in Essex, she developed specialist material and technical knowledge that has since informed her work in this medium. Alongside her own practice, Raya has worked as a Sculpture Fabricator and 3D Scanning Technician at Arteffects in London, gaining experience that has shaped her approach to making while contributing to the production of works by some of today’s leading artists.