Artist Research - Amanda and Matt Caines

Star in the Hand is made up of two artists: Amanda and Matt Caines. I discovered their work on instagram and liked their use of found/collected materials and influeces from the natural world.

'Amanda produces paintings, stitch-work hangings, sculptures and jewellery, drawing upon her vast collection of materials gathered over many years, including glass, wood, metal and ceramics. Matt is a sculptor working in a variety of stone as well as wood, nut and pieces of naturally shed antler. He has worked on marble projects in Carrara, Italy and on found whale bone carvings with Inuit sculptors in Arctic Canada.' - starinthehand.bigcartel.com/



These are broaches made from locally found pottery fragments, set in silver. I think broaches give connotations of status and wealth, so this is an effective way to make broken ceramics seem less ordinary and more exclusive, especially with the silver - even the image on the central piece of the top broach seems to depict rich people from maybe the 19th century. I like the idea of carrying around a piece of history with you, even though the story of the fragments it is unknown, it's kind of sad but also very mystical and intriguing.

This is one of Matt Caines' hand carved and engraved sculptures made from naturally shed antler. It mirrors the pottery broaches in the sense that something has been discarded, but then reclaimed and transformed into art, except this time it is something from nature. Sculptures made from animal bones, antlers and tusks and have a history spanning thousands of years, associated with cruelty and poaching - especially the ivory trade. Caines' work feels like a subversion of this and demonstrates that we can take from nature without destroying it. The engraved black lines have traditional stylistic qualities that strongly remind me of some of the artifacts I saw at the Pitt Rivers museum, where there were collections of native sculpture carved in bone. The animals had a certain symbolism that felt sacred and ancient.
These are some images I took at the museum that I felt Matt Caines' work related to:




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