Degree: Sculpture
University: Edinburgh College of Art
Graduation Year: 2024
Christian Sloan’s sculptural practice examines the enduring impact of human activity, imagining the artefacts that might be uncovered in a post-apocalyptic future. Using materials like concrete, metal, glass, and plastic, Sloan creates monumental forms that reflect on the ecological consequences of industrialisation and climate change. Through these works, he challenges viewers to consider: What will remain of us? What story will our materials and structures tell future generations?
Sloan’s sculptures evoke speculative futures shaped by environmental degradation or nuclear events, presenting objects that feel like relics of a world transformed by humanity’s excess. Drawing inspiration from architecture, pollution, and industry, he reimagines the monumental scale of contemporary structures as fragile remnants of an unsustainable civilisation. These works are beautifully crafted, their evocative forms carrying a sense of heartbreaking beauty as they contemplate both the destruction and resilience embedded in human history.
His piece Debris, composed of plaster, plant fertiliser, recycled steel dust, and salt, exemplifies this approach. It reflects on how discarded materials and waste could form the building blocks of a future narrative. Similarly, his installations recontextualise spiritual practices, embedding ritualistic forms within his vision of a post-industrial world.
Through his contemplative and politically charged practice, Sloan invites viewers to reflect on humanity’s environmental footprint and the potential legacy of our Christian Sloan’s sculptural practice examines the enduring impact of human activity, imagining the artefacts that might be uncovered in a post-apocalyptic future. Using materials like concrete, metal, glass, and plastic, Sloan creates monumental forms that reflect on the ecological consequences of industrialisation and climate change. Through these works, he challenges viewers to consider: What will remain of us? What story will our materials and structures tell future generations?
Sloan’s sculptures evoke speculative futures shaped by environmental degradation or nuclear events, presenting objects that feel like relics of a world transformed by humanity’s excess. Drawing inspiration from architecture, pollution, and industry, he reimagines the monumental scale of contemporary structures as fragile remnants of an unsustainable civilisation. These works are beautifully crafted, their evocative forms carrying a sense of heartbreaking beauty as they contemplate both the destruction and resilience embedded in human history.
His piece Debris, composed of plaster, plant fertiliser, recycled steel dust, and salt, exemplifies this approach. It reflects on how discarded materials and waste could form the building blocks of a future narrative. Similarly, his installations recontextualise spiritual practices, embedding ritualistic forms within his vision of a post-industrial world.
Through his contemplative and politically charged practice, Sloan invites viewers to reflect on humanity’s environmental footprint and the potential legacy of our material choices. His work transforms industrial remnants into thought-provoking monuments, imagining the stories they might tell in a future shaped by both devastation and resilience.
I am a Northern Irish sculptor who creates objects from a potential future timeline where climate change or nuclear war materialises, a warning of a deadline that has already passed.
I have been most interested in how our ancestors' archaeological legacy encompassed stone, wood, and clay, the structures and objects that lasted to our age. However, I believe modern society's legacy will be concrete, metal, glass, and plastic.
I explore these materials using inspirations from architecture, pollution, and industry to create forms and compositions that immerse the viewer in a depiction of scale monumentality: how smaller objects can evoke emotions and the presence of larger structures.
I use a minimalist style and repetition to create simple forms that oppose the busyness andchaos of modern technology and society today.
(2024) VAS Centenary Now and Then, Visual art Scotland, Dalkeith Palace
(2024) Hidden Door at the Paper factory, Hidden doors, Paper factory, Edinburgh
(2024) Pilot Exhibition, West Barns Arts, West barns, Scotland
(2024) RSA Annual show, The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
(2024) What Next?, Salt Space Gallery, Glasgow
(2024) ECA Graduate Show, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh
(2023) Anatomy of a Museum (2), Anatomical Museum at The University of the Edinburgh, Edinburgh
(2020) Northern Ireland College media awards (Animation, First place)
(2024) Shortlisted - Astaire art Prize
(2024) Shortlisted - New Blood Art Emerging Art Prize
(2024) RSA John Kincross Scholarship
(2024) Selected artist - RSA New Contemporaries Exhibition 2025
(2024) Selected - VAS Graduate Showcase Award