Florence Sweeney a multidisciplinary artist based in North London, exhibited internationally and mostly known for her abstract sculptural paintings, hand embroidered tapestries, latex installations and drawing practice.
ARTCOLLECTORNEWS: How has your background shaped your artistic practice?
My practice is heavily autobiographically informed as a response from early childhood traumas and feelings of yearning from grief. Through abstraction I find catharsis in medium, emotive colour fields, tangible surfaces that roam and deception of materials.
ARTCOLLECTORNEWS: How has your creative process changed over the years?
In University I predominately focused on Contemporary Drawing and how far that could be pushed as an outcome. When I moved to London my first job was in a hardware shop and I rented a studio, this is where I began to expand in materials and found my way into sculpting, in that sacred space of a studio became a liberation of the physicality, breaking away from the page.
ARTCOLLECTORNEWS: How has your artwork evolved since you first started making art?
A level of sophistication of materials has evolved over the years, firstly I was casting with plaster of Paris, which burned the hands and easily crumbled. Then concrete aggregates which was successful but limited in its potential forms. Discovering Jesmonite a water-based resin elevated my sculptures and have a versatility that has worked extremely well for me.
ARTCOLLECTORNEWS: What inspired you to become an artist?
My mother was an artist, I have no memory of her but through similar medium, processes, themes I found a spiritual connection with her. This is only something I claimed in my early twenties as I felt alien with my origins, somewhat self-conscious to delve into the past. The only way I could channel complicated emotions as a child was by art, it just made sense to me.
ARTCOLLECTORNEWS: Are there any particular artists or movements that have greatly influenced your work? In what way?
In my early twenties it had to be Tracey Emin and Louise Borgeouise with the movement of Confessional Art. Inspired, I felt I could find my voice and start to speak of the atrocities of my childhood through my work that being drawing and textiles base.
This can be all overwhelming extruding parts of the self into art. I needed to catch a breath; this is where Abstraction gave me the space. Jason Martin, Bosco Sodi, Eva Hesse, Larry Bell, Mark Rothko… interpret what you will, abstract ambiguity, shape and form can represent anything to the viewer, it’s like a Rorschach. Boldness and simplicity, its pure emotion evoked.
ARTCOLLECTORNEWS: How do you select your themes?
Most of the time it is from journaling which I’ve been practicing for 15 years or so, books that I’m reading, generally a psychological enquiry into the self.
With abstractions its meditations, I get hooked by a colour for a while melancholic blues ruled me, accompanied by Rebecca Solnit’s A Field Guild To Getting Lost. At present sanguine reds are dominating my works, its symbolic to my emotive state, reading Dante’s Inferno and Louise Bourgeoise’s tones.
ARTCOLLECTORNEWS: Can you tell us a bit about a few specific pieces you have created that you are particularly proud of?
In my latest series of work ‘Une Saison en Enfer’ I have applied a new paint method of car body paint and lacquer which is then baked in a heated spray booth. This has changed the surface and fabrication of the three-dimensional paintings into rippling, bubbling liquid.
ARTCOLLECTORNEWS: What has been the most rewarding part of your career as a studio artist?
Being able to travel internationally for exhibitions and have works in collections, seeing my works in a different context of positioning / perception which gives a new dialogue. A series of my sculptural paintings of blue gradients face the Atlantic Ocean in Miami, that was a moment for me to seeing the blue horizon of sea and sky mirror my paintings.
ARTCOLLECTORNEWS: Please tell us about your latest body of work.
In Feburary 2023 during Plop Residency in London I developed my latest series of works ‘Une Saison en Enfer’ which is a series of 9 three dimensional sculptural paintings that follow the descent into the centre of the earth. Using Dante’s Inferno as a paradigm, I have studied the book over the last few years, initially as an enquiry to where my father would reside - Caïna, Traitors To Their Families, suspended in an icey lake above the neck, shards of hail impaling the face… sometimes fiction can bring a sense of justice where it hasn’t been met.
In my recent readings, Jungian Analyst Donald Kalsched expands on the metaphor of Dante’s decent into the Self, the centre of the earth is The City of Dis. Dis representing Dissociation, one must reach the core of their dissociation in order to come through the other side, that being the top of the world.
I realised most of my life has been spent in a dissociative state, using literature and art I’m able to articulate the suppressed.
ARTCOLLECTORNEWS: Do you have any upcoming exhibitions or projects that you are excited about?
I am developing new methods in making my artworks on a larger scale for commissions lined up. Following a few projects which are in the planning now!
ARTCOLLECTORNEWS: What do you think is the most important aspect of creating successful artwork?
For me the piece must present a captured emotion which can be contextualised, whilst being authentic to the artist.
ARTCOLLECTORNEWS: Describe your process of creating a new artwork from concept to completion.
It comes from a contemplative state which comes from journaling, writing down sections from books, gathering images, my journal is a sketchbook which archives all thought and ideas which when the timing is right, I can come back to create.
ARTCOLLECTORNEWS: What is your favourite medium to work with? Please tell us a bit about how the medium influences or supports the ideas behind your work
The versatility of Jesmonite has been fundamental in my practice in exploring new forms and shapes, however I branch out with different medias such as latex and fabric.
A running overlapping theme is cloth, fabric, deception of surface, the veil, being cut from the same cloth.
My favourite technique to implement with medium is creating trickery, Parrhasius’ curtain, trompe-l’oeil per say,
ARTCOLLECTORNEWS: Are there any techniques you have developed that you use consistently in your artwork?
Learning how to weld aluminium for my subframes and use the spray booth in application of paint, it has levelled up my practice in terms of robustness and finish.
ARTCOLLECTORNEWS: What has been the most memorable artwork you have created? What makes this piece memorable?
I painted a 25-metre-long veil from liquid latex which became an installation for a group show in Espositivo Gallery Madrid in 2019. The piece titled ’25 years’ each metre represented a year distance from the departure of my mother, the veil between the material and spiritual realm. The liquid latex was applied of six layers that followed gradients of organic pigments, blending into one another, sand and mother of pearl enmeshed in the piece. I was able to break away from the wall and create incursions in space as the latex suspended from the interior space.
ARTCOLLECTORNEWS: What was the most challenging piece you have ever created? How much do you think the effort you put into creating a work is important vs the idea behind it?
The idea stands stronger than the amount of effort that is put into it, a minimal artwork may have a considered gestural stroke, but the artist understands the space to place the mark. But then say a piece that shows the passing of time by a repetitive action can be interesting to give a sense of commitment to obsession. For me, I haven’t faced too many challenges only that being time, the tapestries which are done each stitch at a time by hand and can take up to 6 months to a year, but generally that is factored into the fabrication when exhibiting. There is a different quality in hand stitch than to machine that can’t be replicated.
ARTCOLLECTORNEWS: Tell us about the particular materials or techniques you use to create your artwork and how they influence your work and practice?
There is fluidity in my work from the technique of casting, by pouring liquid Jesmonite I can coerce the medium to follow the folds but as I work inside out, I lose control of knowing how the piece will completely turn out. I like that delegation of trusting the material, its touch and feel is fundamental, it challenges my perfectionism. Raw pigment applied to the artworks adds another velvet layer which the tonality of my works change depending on lighting in their environment.
ARTCOLLECTORNEWS: Are there any specific techniques or materials you would like to learn how to use in the future?
Learning how to use carbon fibre so I can make pieces over 3 metres long, I would love to see my work on that scale. Hydro dipping print has been a process that has intrigued me, there is always something new to learn in terms of fabrication.
ARTCOLLECTORNEWS: What themes or topics are you exploring in your current artwork?
As my work is autobiographical the themes are fluid what might be grasping my attention, inspiring, or affecting me, but the general theme carries on throughout my practice. A psychological enquiry into the Self, colour theory, materiality, abstraction…
ARTCOLLECTORNEWS: Are there any particular projects or themes you would like to explore in the future?
I’m planning the next series of paintings and researching into different methods of casting and surface, following themes of yearning, that’s all I’ll say for now!
ARTCOLLECTORNEWS: What do you think is the most important skill a studio artist should have?
Curiosity to experiment - without the expectation of presenting it on social media. It’s important to have fun with your work.
ARTCOLLECTORNEWS: What do you think has been the biggest challenge in your creative career?
During the pandemic and worldwide political issues at central focus I became very self-aware, questioning if making autobiographical work was self-indulgent, is my voice worthy of being heard of? The truth of the matter is, it’s worth being told if with conviction, not half-assing it.
ARTCOLLECTORNEWS: What advice would you give to aspiring studio artists?
Be authentic, don’t sprint for trends and remember every day of your life contributes to being an artist, keep a steady pace.
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