We are Ocean – Alison Grant and Tokes Sharif

This exhibition seeks to engage in a dialogue about our relationships within the ecosystems that sustain us, to create space for contemplation and connection.

In the title work in We Are Ocean, the earth, borderless as befits a waterlogged world, reaches out beyond itself to the cosmos of which it is a part, to the stars, chiming with the seasons in their solstice alignment, to the sun, from which it draws both heat and light, and to the moon which draws its tides. Grant’s mapping is based on a Spilhaus projection centred on the Antarctic, making the seven seas one great ocean, pulsing with power and teeming with life. Engraved on a reclaimed mirror, Grant’s Ocean, so often rendered featureless and inert on conventional maps, reveals instead the face of the viewer gazing back, reminding us that we are indeed made who we are by the ocean’s shaping and creative power, that the oxygen and water that cycles through the seas is present in every breath we take. Reflections and echoes permeate Grant’s work, of land and sea, winter and spring, the human and non-human, of the material earth on which we live and the cultural world in which we dwell, seeming binaries which resolve themselves in a dynamic planetary system whose ceaseless motion is driven by the surge and churn of the seas, becoming there like the systole, diastole of that oceanic flow. Algal inks and seaweed and shells, the gifts gathered on beachcombing expeditions, proliferate, never seen by Grant as mere passive materials, but as endowed with the same shaping power of the ocean itself, as actors in the drama of her work, perhaps not playing a role of their own devising, but playing it their own way.

Tokes Sharif also turns to the oceans for inspiration, his pots following the forms of frond and stipe and calcareous growth until, like amphorae salvaged from ancient shipwrecks, they seem barnacled over by time, as though they already anticipate their own sea-change. Sharif incorporates oystershells directly into his work and experiments with seaweed ash glazes, and with restricted firing techniques which, while they relinquish a degree of control over the finish and frustrate efforts at flawless execution, do allow the fullest possible expression to the mineral content of the clay. His work is invitingly tactile, with a deeply satisfying heft and volume, and hugely desirable, though their particularity resists the commodification of that desire: Sharif’s pots are a quiet revolt against ideal form.

Alison Grant’s oysters are not representations of oysters, but oysters representing; Sharif’s pots are not acheiropoieta, not made by human hands, but they are not made only by human hands. In We Are Ocean, Grant and Sharif are feeling their way towards a way of working which might also suggest a way of living in these environmentally destitute times, towards a poetics of reciprocity.

ALISON GRANT

My work explores the delicate balance and intricate beauty found in our world. By observing and capturing these elements I aim to convey the balance I feel of awe – inspiring power and fragility.

I aim to create space for contemplation, introspection and connection by engaging viewers in a dialogue about our relationship with our home and find a deeper understanding of our place within the ecosystems that sustain us.

My creative process includes many media to best express the ideas I am working with, often collaborating directly with natural forces and biotic and abiotic materials including, flowing water, snow, wind, breath, plants, and muds to make artworks grounded in significant times and places.

Alison Grant is a visual artist and community facilitator based in Edinburgh, her work explores ways to create space for contemplation, introspection, connection and dialogue with our home and our place and relationships with the ecosystems that sustain us.
Recent projects include 11,000 miles an Ocean facing research project supported by a Creative Scotland Award and Drawing Down the Sun a community model for climate agency and creativity. Previous solo exhibitions include Stone Moon a collaboration with poet Fiona Sampson MBE shown at the Scottish Poetry Library and the Wigtown Book Festival in 2022. No Ruined Stones shown in Wiltshire and online in the virtual Art North Exhibition 2020 and The Shape of Time and Suspended Shadows shown with the Warburton Gallery Edinburgh.

TOKES SHARIF

Tokes Sharif handcrafts sculptural and functional objects using clay incorporating local and foraged materials. Each piece is mindfully fashioned, in small batches, into iconic and timeless forms influenced by archeology and nature. The use of a limited palette of neutral and earthy tones coupled with stony and matte textures draws inspiration from Scottish landscapes. This deliberate choice of aesthetics is to allow a deeper and reflective connection to nature anchored through the practical use of the pieces and thus enhancing the wellbeing of the recipient.