Justine Watt

At the heart of my practice is a desire to transform mundane, domestic, yet profoundly intimate artifacts of our daily existence, considering the relationship between the corporeal and the crafted. The modularity of each sculpture facilitates the practicalities of assembly, but also imbues my work with a cyclical narrative, inviting reinterpretation. Recently I have been working with discarded beech chairs, destined for landfill. Using traditional woodworking methods, such as steam bending and kerfing, I aim to renew and regenerate these unwanted everyday objects, offering the viewer the chance to reappreciate them. The laborious processes inherent in my approach, steeped in repetition, renewal and meditative rhythm, evoke echoes of domesticity, the value of labour and timeless rituals of craftsmanship. I hope to spark joy and engagement and raise awareness of our collective responsibility towards the environment, ethical use of materials and disrupt the inertia of our throwaway culture.