Women in Art - Raising the Bar
15 FEBRUARY 2022 - 08 MARCH 202214. Keziah Burt
Surrender
Surrender
Glazed Stoneware Ceramic on Metal Plinth.
32 cm h x 18 cm w x 23 cm d
(Plus, plinth 15 cm square plate of welded steel. Height including plinth plate 36 cm approx)
2019
Original sculpture- one of a kind.
Glazed filled in my KGB stamp.
Surrender depicts a woman, eyes bound with hessian rope, her head raised with calm and poise. The surface of her skin marbled by a green blue glaze that resembles Italian stone. Her neck is exposed, her lips full.
To what does she surrender?
I love the ambiguity in this piece, she could be surrendering to pleasure, pain or an uncertain future, but what feels clear that she will do it on her own terms. Her expression is so still and elegant in this moment of surrender, like she is holding her breathe before the leap into the unknown.
Portrait sculpture is essentially story telling with clay. The narrative is not always apparent in the early stages of the sculpt, and often only reveals itself in the final stages in the alchemy of the glaze or oxide firing.
Made with stoneware clay fired with a marbled green /blue glaze, and hessian rope. Mounted on a welded steel stand. Suitable for interior spaces.
Created in York at my studio in 2019. A portrait of my friend and muse Sarah who is a teacher of English and a lover of literature. She has such balance in her features, she is always a joy to sculpt.
ESTIMATE
£1,800 - 3,000
This auction has now ended
Notes
As a specialist in portraiture and figurative sculpture my practice revolves around the desires and needs that drive all human experience.
I am fascinated by the constant state of emotional and physical flux we inhabit every day. We search for true intimacy and connectedness and yet there can be a juxtaposition of such riotous joyfulness, resounding isolation and loss to endure.
I aim to communicate through my work my experience as a woman, mother, lover and try to unpick the connections I find myself seeking. Sourcing inspiration for all of my sculptural practice from the moments of tenderness I have witnessed and experienced in my life. Essentially I am a story teller.
Inspired by my own experiences living with Hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome in a fragile body, my work often seaks to elicit the viewers empathy and tenderness. I invite them to connect with their own place in the world, to draw their attention to the innate value of human interaction, our basic need to reach out and touch.
Education:
Loughborough School of Art and Design,
MA Fine Art Studio Practise 2004-2005
BA (First Class Honours) Fine Art- Sculpture 2001-2004
Selected Exhibitions:
Royal Society of British Artists exhibition Mall Galleries London 2021
Society of Portrait Sculptors annual exhibition 2021
Notable sitters/Commissions:
Tom Croft BEM – NHS portraits for heros
Charles Berkeley of Berkeley Castle Gloucestershire 2022
Rosalind Franklin DNA scientist Hampstead London 2021
Major General Susan Ridge first female at this rank in British Military History.
Laura Bates celebrated Feminist Author
Menna Fitspatrick MBE and Jen Keho MBE Paralympic Gold Medalists
Mary Beard Cambridge Classicist and author
Awards:
Lady Petchey Sculpture Prize, as part of the Hollybush Emerging Woman Painter Prize 2021. (Finalist)
Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust award 2019. (Finalist)
Society of Portrait Sculptors Masterclass prize in 2019 (Shortlisted)
www.keziahburt.co.uk
@keziahburtartist on Instagram