Esther Boehm – West Norfolk & King’s Lynn
Esther creates experimental and conceptual work exploring human conditions combining raku figures, various materials and found objects.
About Esther
“Being a bit of a nomad, I have always worked in and with whatever materials the environment I lived in allowed. Sometimes larger sculptural works were possible but other times it was only small drawings. With every move, the conditions, and hence work, changed. On a trip to Carrara in 1998, I began carving stone, then later wood. Just before moving to England, I found a damp and decaying but beautiful piece of wood in the Palatinate Forest in Germany. This was the beginning of a new body of work involving small figure ‘impressions’ made of raku fired clay. Exploring the context of the figures started an associative chain reaction allowing me to explore new ideas. I love the ambiguity of meaning that can arise; an opportunity for the viewer to consider and decide. Recently, the opportunity to exhibit in a large space reminded me of the challenge I had during a symposium in Germany where I created large objects that were suspended in a derelict brewery. Now, I have made eleven large pillar figures that were inspired by a drawing done in 2016. The objects were conceived to be connected and flow through a space allowing visitors to walk through them. What is exciting is that a change the arrangement changes the aesthetic of the piece. Regardless of the materials I use, it is the visualisation of something inside and outside of myself that has always been the key motivation in my work.”