Outside, inside the Forest - Sarah Misselbrook - Spain
Channel: Lacuna Festivals
Date: 2021-07-01

Recorded Performance - Sarah Misselbrook’s sculptural installations, performance works and observational drawings are inspired by her total immersion in an off-grid location in the mountains of Catalunya, Spain. Connecting with, and the close witnessing of life, death, rebirth and the transience and fragility of both material processes and actions fuel her practice. Ongoing questions exist - how to connect and communicate the artist’s fascination with control, consumption and the resulting environmental effects with an ‘audience’ from such an isolated environment. Obsessive acts of measuring, perfecting, breaking and healing envelops her creative process, whilst commenting on the disciplined but futile quest for an unattainable ‘perfection’. Misselbrook was selected as part of the Blockchain online collaborative project, organised by Chapel Arts Studios in 2019, which saw her continued investigation into site-specific, ‘land-based’ bodily performances and installations. The artist was invited by Cendrart (Art from ashes) to create a site-specific ‘leave no trace’ sculptural installation and performance in the forest of Catalunya, devastated by fire in the summer of 2019. During 2020, Misselbrook published her first book ‘Upon Reflection 2020’ which looks back over 20 years of practice spanning a move from the UK to Cyprus, Cyprus to Catalunya. The book includes stills from performance and video work and written word, which present her ritualistic approach to practice. Art in place, sustainability and a deep connection to nature continue to inspire.