Sara Trillo: Artist Statement
My current work has been inspired by the idea of a quest: specifically to make an expedition to submerged coastal spaces and challenge myself to make particular artefacts formed by materials caught in the ebb and flood at these locations. As part of this I have been making tools to excavate finds and an oversized sledge to pull these on, and have primarily used Pegwell Bay- site of Roman/Viking/ St Augustine’s landings- as a focus for my research. By setting myself objectives of working with found materials and experiments with submersion I have established a marine palette of bitumen, chalk, cuttlefish ink, rubber, sand and plastic, and have developed narratives inspired by the location, as well as making an expedition in a long tradition of people traversing this historical site.
I have always used specific environments to locate research, drawing on archaeological, geographical and historical references to form objects, paintings and narratives to which I hope to ascribe a form of mythical cultural belief. A desire to collage fragments together to generate a new meaning is always at the core of my practice, whether this be found materials, layers of paint, or snatches of text. Likewise, in working on projects with public participation, I set up an overriding fictional structure in which I act as a puppet master, attempting to bring all the diverse collaborative elements together.
SARA TRILLO 