20/05/2026
What materials were used to make the objects in Reimaginings? Artist tells us about her process choosing to work with an eclectic range of materials, and how these shaped her creative practice. 💥 👀
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Transcript:
EB: What materials did you choose to work with? How did these shape your practice?
HL: A big part of my practice is a series of works that I’ve titled ‘Snuff Bottles’. These pieces are inspired by traditional s***f bottles, but are made from very different materials. They’re much larger, and I usually make them using jesmonite and polymer clay – so, much more modern materials compared to a lot of the objects that are in the museum. But I think there’s something interesting about that contrast of these newer materials paired with much more traditional making processes.
We have that, but then we also have some objects that are matched based on their materials. We have a bronze s***f bottle in the show that’s paired alongside a bronze mirror, and inside this bronze s***f bottle there’s a little silver dangling chain.
But predominantly, most of the works here are made from polymer clay and jesmonite, which is a material that I’ve used in a lot of works in my practice. It’s a very interesting material. I started using it when I was a teenager, so it’s one of those things that is actually quite easy to use, in a way. I’ve been able to develop it and pair it with other materials to create different qualities with the material.
And then, the piece behind me is this huge bat made from wood, and we also have these fun plastic chains and tassels.
So, there’s this nice contrast between these works and the museum objects. It’s quite fun to compare the qualities that you get with these different materials.
