Meet the Artist: Rosie Mortimer
We sat down with artist Rosie Mortimer to discuss her designs for our brand-new range of Artefact wines, her solo show ‘Divided Light,’ a new sculpture installation on the Artelium estate, and her win of the 2024 Artelium Artefact Prize in collaboration with Sussex Contemporary.
A collection of works included in Divided Light.
Rosie Mortimer’s work is an exploration of human experience. She highlights the hidden elements that quietly dictate our lives.
Her sculpture’s scale and form are often proportioned to Mortimer’s own body: small enough to fit in a hand, echoing the size of a torso, or the reach of an arm. Although abstract, Mortimer’s sculptures often begin and end with the human. Shifting light, and the sculptures’ environment, intertwine with the forms: they cannot be observed in isolation, but demand to be observed in relation to their surroundings. Her sculptures speak of the seen and unseen but equally present.
Rosie Mortimer MRSS was raised in London, where she studied at Chelsea College of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art, graduating in 1990. In 1996 she completed her MFA at the Edinburgh College of Art. She has recently been accepted into the Royal Society of Sculptors and was the winner of the 2024 Artelium Artefact prize in collaboration with Sussex Contemporary. Her current solo show at Artelium Wine Estate ‘Divided Light,’ her Artefact label designs and the installation of her sculpture ‘Surface, Edge, Shadow,’ is the culmination of this prize.
Divided Light runs until the 21st September, Saturday & Sunday, 11.00 - 17.00.
Surface, Edge, Shadow, Iron & copper
Where did the idea come from for your new sculpture installed on Artelium’s estate, ‘Surface, Edge, Shadow’?
I was thinking more and more about walls and separation, of symbols of division. Something as small as a fence keeps somebody on one side or the other, denying or affording possibility depending on which side you inhabit.
But I didn’t want to create a physical wall, as I wanted to talk about what happens on either side, rather than the thing itself. I was struggling to figure out how to do this. Then, one day I was sitting in a car park, and I was looking at buttresses holding up an old wall, and it clicked. I thought, well, that's the way to go: I don't actually make the wall, I make a description of the wall with buttresses. Somehow that made more sense.
And then that way, because I have the two buttresses, I could use two different materials for two descriptions of either side of the wall: one side made of iron which will rust and weather and the other made of the more ‘noble’ material of copper.
Because I've made the pieces with the wire, by reducing things down to just the wire and the material, it seemed like a really direct way of getting to an idea. So, although it's not purely conceptual, the concept seemed to be clearer by reducing the materials.
Artefact #11 - Maiden Harvest Pinot Gris & Artefact #12 - Maiden Harvest Chardonnay
‘Surface, Edge, Shadow,’ has inspired the beautiful pen and ink drawings which became the designs for Artefacts #11 & #12. Drawing hasn’t been a large part of your practice but this exercise of making the label designs has resulted in new developments in your practice. Can you talk to us about that?
Drawing has become a way of daydreaming in a nice way. Although it’s a new aspect of my practice there is a continuation of ideas. My wire-pieces are like drawings in space, an exploration of outline and essence, and this is what drawing is, in a way.
These drawings on paper led to large-scale pieces on plywood, where I have drawn into the surface with a belt sander. This is a new direction for me, exhibited for the first time as part of ‘Divided Light.’
Divided Light, gallery view.
Wire sculptures are a big part of your practice; how did you arrive at this way of working?
For a few years, before I was a permanent teacher, I only taught seasonally. So, in the summers I used to be a private art tutor to top up my income. I was teaching a lot of drawing and subsequently I was doing a lot of thinking about drawing and lines. At the same time, I was quite jealous: I felt like I was working all the time, facilitating other people’s creative practice rather than my own.
So, I had no money, and I was fed up. One day I was outside a bargain shop in Littlehampton, and I thought, ‘screw it, I’m going to buy something for me.’ I went into this bargain shop, and I bought a roll of galvanised garden wire for £10.
I wanted to explore this idea of ‘drawing in space.’ I became really interested in the shape of my car’s oil filter, so I took it out and I wrapped some wire around it. And then I started to look at other interesting little objects that were sitting about and thinking, what would happen if I drew around these?
It was so exciting. I then started to think that I could do bigger ideas because it was really just so simple. I found a better metal, explored different thicknesses, played around with scale and my practice just grew and evolved.
The use of wire and transparent materials such as Perspex in your work, encourages a play of light. What is the importance of light and shadow in your work?
It's the whole Shakespeare thing, isn't it? To be or not to be. Things are here and they're not. The world is incredibly fragile – everything is temporary.
Rosie welding Surface, Edge, Shadow in her studio.
You won the 2024 Artelium Artefact Prize in collaboration with Sussex Contemporary. You were selected by Artelium from the piece Object/Plinth, exhibited in Sussex Contemporary’s The Sussex exhibition, 2024. How has winning this prize affected your practice?
I had felt that my studio practice had been going well for a while and wanted to get it seen. I came across the Sussex Contemporary on Instagram, and the 2024 The Sussex theme -Duality- fitted well with one of my pieces, Object/Plinth. I was really pleased when it was selected for the show but hadn’t looked at the prizes.
Being awarded the Artelium Artefact Prize has been hugely beneficial to me. At around the same time I was also accepted into the Royal Society of Sculptors. They have both given me confidence that the work I’m making is worthwhile - which most of the time I know it is - but it’s a massive prop for when Doubt takes hold. It is a constant reminder that I am able to make good work, and to keep going when it gets difficult.
Having the opportunity to put together pieces for a solo exhibition has been challenging, but in a really good way - considering how the pieces would work together, to create a coherent narrative. I was particularly pleased with the three smaller ink-on-paper pieces, which haven’t been shown before.
Initially I was reluctant to create the wine labels. Drawing has not been a part of my practice, but it was part of the prize, and when I finally got into doing them found the process really engaging. They have also generated new 2D work, including new pieces on plywood included in the exhibition, exploring ideas around remnants/memory.
In practical terms the prize has also had an impact: I’ve made a storeroom so that I can keep more of my work, rather than recycling the majority of it. I’ve also invested in tools that I have wanted for a long time, including welding equipment (which I’ve thinking about for years). I often make quite large pieces and have wanted to explore creating outdoor work (so that they have a potential destination). Making the commissioned piece ‘Surface, Edge, Shadow,’ for Artelium propelled me to get the welding equipment, which feels like a very positive step.
In short, it’s been hugely beneficial. I’m more confident about the work and have really enjoyed creating a series of pieces to be exhibited together.
I’m hugely grateful to Sussex Contemporary and Artelium.