Serpha, 2023
Glazed Ceramic and aluminum
22 x 24 x 16cm each

Skewered Frog, 2021

Bronze 

20.5 x 5.5 x 3.5cm

ARTWORK STATEMENT

Serpha is a multi-headed beast which exists outside its own skin. Here we see the decapitated heads which although dismembered continue to survive in a meditative state. The creature is not governed by being ‘ones-self’ but instead relishes becoming a glimmering ‘shell’ of life which exists after humans. This careful language is anxious, yet striving. The fragmentation of ‘one body’ expands as the creature mutates and adapts in a fluid state of existence.

This work feeds off fractured forms of communication and the continuous scroll and bombardment of information. Adaption becomes paramount as the self dissipates. 

Skewered Frog was made as part of the ‘Lost-Wax for Lost-Species’ KINstinct Arts Project founded by Abigail Burt. It brought together over 100 artists and 5 independent founders to collectively make a Noah’s Ark of endangered species.   

Each artist worked with natural modeling wax sent around the UK during the global pandemic and came together through this creative act to raise awareness of endangered species. In 2022 the works went on tour and were exhibited across the UK culminating in an auction which raised over £11,000 for conservation charities.

Amphibians such as frogs, toads, newts and salamanders are the worlds most threatened group of vertebrates. The main threats to their survival include disease, pollution, habitat loss and climate change. If harvesting trends continue certain species of frogs could be extinct by 2032.

BIOGRAPHY

Camilla Bliss regularly draws on motifs found in historical craftsmanship, myth and folklore to communicate ideas about the modern world, placing an importance on the handmade, yet at the same time referencing our relationship to digital technology. Bliss is interested in how we navigate the world through alternate states of being. The work is playful, and she often creates characters which have different personalities exploring the transitory nature of these states. They act as deities that build a relationship between the world we know and ruptured states between consciousness or the unfamiliar.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

3 – Good Health and Well-being

6 – Clean water and sanitation

12 – Responsible Consumption and Production

13 – Climate Action

14 – Life Below Water

15 – Life on Land