Adam Stephens
I studied sculpture at Brighton Polytechnic in the late 1980’s, and was taught by Phyllida Barlow, Alison Wilding and Peter Randall-Page. I completed post-graduate training in Art Education at Goldsmiths College London in 1990 and have taught art in secondary schools in England and since 2008 at Elizabeth College in Guernsey, where I am currently Head of the Creative Arts Faculty and director of Gate House Gallery.
My art practice is focused on sculpture but I also make related work in drawing, painting and mixed-media. Collage is central to my creative process. Found objects retain a memory of past life that can create poetic resonance and trigger associations both within and beyond the work. I am fascinated by the potential for everyday materials to evoke feelings of transcendence or otherworldliness.
I deliberately introduce elements of chance into the making process. By giving up a degree of control, the work begins to take on a life of its own and to exist more fully in the world. I navigate my way forward more by intuition than intellect, and remain open to all new possibilities as they become apparent.
I am interested in the way that we live together and how we occupy the surface of the earth; what we build and the traces that we leave; the consequences of globalisation and what that might look like from some point in the future.
I try to make objects that can stand for themselves and that encourage speculation.