Holly Rozier is a mixed-media textile artist based in Nottingham, UK. Her soft sculptures are created with a controlled combination of fabrics and materials that are voluptuous, malleable and tactile. We interviewed Holly back in 2016 so the following interview demonstrates a collection of work from that period.
What inspires your practice?
Private challenges emotionally motivate my creative production, with the process of making these beings becoming a means of catharsis. I channel troubles, anxieties, passions and thoughts I would rather forget into my work, which is then contained underneath the skins of these creatures.
My work manifests itself as an exploration of the juxtaposition between beauty and the grotesque. It has the ability to intrigue, attract and repel the viewer simultaneously. I contort, inflate and extend the bodily forms into a new breed or hybrid of a being. These surreal anthropomorphic forms could be human, animal, plant or alien; genetically engineered or naturally evolved, alive or dead?
How do you decide on your materials?
The soft and luxurious qualities inherent in the materials I use are contradictory to the coarse and sometimes unpleasant emotions instigating their creation. The visible stitches all over the surface evoke mental scars, wounds which I have caused and repaired.
Everything susceptible to transformation is cut and sewn. Contrasting ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ fabrics; hessian sacking and nylon tights are used to create the appearance of skin. Alongside this, rich silky fabric creates intricate and beautiful, yet putrid and wet sections of innards exposed through the ‘skins’ of the forms.
My most recent work is beginning to focus on the idea that these living organisms are growing in a permanent site, fixing themselves to surfaces with their limb-like extrusions or roots. I aim to create the idea that these equivocal parasitic creatures are invading the space, feeding off the location they have fixed themselves upon.
The act of the creatures invading and completely inhabiting the space is representative of the feelings in my head. Sometimes I dislike my work, not due to aesthetic qualities, but because I know what is captured within the piece.”
We’ve seen many soft sculpture artists who explore the area where softness transforms a seemingly innocent object into something quite different and Holly stretches this idea by building creations that are deliberately disturbing. They’re comfortable nightmares, friendly but fearful, soft yet far from safe.
If you like what you see, make sure to have a look through Holly’s Instagram where you’ll find a diverse range of her work!
