University: Edinburgh College of Art
Graduation Year: 2023
Lydia Carter's work invites a deeper, slower and more profound consideration of the connections between time, place, landscape, custom and tradition. Using a diverse range of materials to create works which muddy the boundary between craft and fine art, Lydia's concern with material and technique suggest new ways of engaging with traditional practices, considering ways in which objects and the process of their making both create and reflect cultures and histories.
Opening up points of connection between rural craft and engagement with the land, Lydia's practice is a slow, deliberate one, concerned with seasonal rhythms and rituals. Works such as 'Apple Wassail' embody what Lydia terms a 'sacred and devotional relationship with the natural world'. The copper sculpture has at its centre a chalice, surrounded by lush foliage and circles suggesting apples, in reference to a ritual ceremony prevalent in Lydia's native Somerset in which trees in an orchard are blessed in the hope that they will produce an abundant crop. Bread and cider are offered to the trees, and the ritual is sometimes connected to the Apple Tree Man, a spirit embodying the fertility of the orchard. The form of the sculpture itself, resembling a tray or platter, invites ideas about how the object itself could become a constituent in this ritual.
Figuring communities as deeply implicated in their landscapes, works such as 'Wheat Sorters' and 'Winter Meal' foster connections between land, crops and rural workers who are involved in their production, bringing the tactile processes of human hands to the fore. Lydia works with a wide range of materials, including oil paints, copper, wood and bone carving, with the process of mastery of different techniques as much as the pieces themselves offering points of connection with tradition and engagement with landscape and folklore. The small bone carving 'Phosphor', in the form of a white flame, suggests a rich folk history of will o'the wisps, marsh fire and friar's lantern, lights which appear in bogs and marshes leading travellers astray. Lydia's work offers ways to
reengage with our heritage in ways that are fruitful and meaningful for an age where landscape and responsibility could not be more important.
My work weaves together labour, folk tradition, land and identity. Its interdisciplinary nature has led me to adopt a multitude of rural and endangered crafts, exploring the tension between the rustic and refined. For the past year I have been compiling techniques, bringing attention to European intangible cultural heritage. Alongside this I have been making my own fine art materials, aiming to combine earth ritual and home-grown process. I deeply believe in the potential of folk culture for reengagement with the land, community and identity. Folk ritual encourages sensitivity towards the seasons and teaches a respect for the land which is not often seen in British culture. Labour and time are elements that I try to emulate within my practice. My pieces often contain layers of process, mirroring the stages of intervention and rebirth that define folk culture. Natural materials often require seasoning, soaking or drying, to dye materials they need to be scoured and mordanted for at least a week, then steamed for multiple hours. This, and the detail within my graphic work, slow the process, encouraging a more deliberate approach to time. I use artwork to reflect upon my time in a landscape, often marking the conclusion of self-led pilgrimages. My upbringing in rural Somerset and my involvement in nature conservation fortifies a sacred and devotional relationship with the natural world. The physical, repetitive quality of both land work and traditional craft thus inform a spell-like, ritualistic approach to my practice.