Lorna Phillips grew up in Dumfries and Galloway. She graduated in sculpture from Edinburgh College of Art in 2021. Lorna has recently returned to Edinburgh after living in Estonia in recent years, stemming from a successful Erasmus exchange in Tallinn. Lorna received the Clason-Harvie Bursary for her graduate project and has recently been awarded the Houliston Craft Award by Craft Scotland. She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Estonia, Scotland and Slovenia. She intends to continue developing her sculpture practice in Scotland, building upon her relationship to clay, craft, and the landscapes that surround her.
Lorna Phillips’ research-based practice excavates traces of material culture and social history by journeying into the biographies of the land. Acts of collecting and re-distributing are led by an urge to discover the artist’s surroundings. The material of clay provides the path into the landscape and what it holds.
Lorna intends to delve into the stories that certain places hold; within their communities and their long histories, and within the land itself, its formation. These stories are discovered through archaeology, heritage and geology.
Lorna’s relationship to clay has come from a personal affinity to the material and to craft. It has grown to allow an understanding of connection between people and their land. Clay as a material dug from the land, key to the development of human societies, carrying the skills handed down through generations to work the material; Lorna’s interest in clay is anchored in its use as both an expressive and functional material.
The sourcing of the materials that form Lorna’s practice, and the physical journeys involved in this process are key to the artist’s practice. In producing a body of work, the walking, digging, carrying and processing is of equal importance to the finished sculpture. This is recorded and expressed through film, drawing, photography and writing.
Overall, Lorna aims to create sculpture that is quiet and thorough.
