Red Lodge Clay Center – Short-Term Resident (ASPN) 2022
Sydney Butts is a studio artist based in Central Florida. She is currently pursuing a BFA in ceramics at the University of Florida and is expected to graduate in 2022. Sydney is sculpting self-portrait figures, emphasizing personal childhood experiences that are recorded through the gestural mark making process of clay.
I am taking moments in time from my personal experiences, and capturing them within self-portrait figurative sculptures. Personal identity takes place within the form, documenting a specific thought, memory, or desire, from moments of consciousness as a child, where anxiety and fear were present. The figures interact with their surroundings, through the gaze, and reflection, emphasizing the relationship between the figure and its environment.
This fragmented figure is exploring the removal of identity. A relationship is created between the inside and outside of the form, through contrasting surfaces and values. Drawing with charcoal on a sculptural form acts as an extension from paper, highlighting gestural movement and framing the body through mark making. The sharp crop of the body halts the existence of a specific being, disregarding the autonomy of self, resulting in stunted growth of self-awareness, that is often the result of a dysfunctional childhood.