Phoebe Cummings is an artist who works predominantly with raw clay to create time-based sculptures and environments. Her work often combines both real and imagined botanical forms, existing as material performances that touch on themes of existence and desire. The intense labour of making by hand sits in direct opposition to the transience of the sculptures and their proximity to collapse. Large-scale ephemeral works are made on site, and the same clay may be recycled and reused at different locations through cycles of creation and destruction. The traces of physical interaction between body and raw material are always present, with finger and palm prints exposed on the surface of the clay. The raw material takes an active role in the work as it drips, dries, shrinks, and cracks.

For her first presentation with Lyndsey Ingram, Cummings will create a new site-specific installation for the gallery’s space at 16 Bourdon Street, presented alongside a series of works on paper and ceramic studies. We invite you to meet the artist, who will be working in the gallery during the week from Tuesday 2nd June, creating works for her exhibition Flowers, Birds and Fantasies.