Edith Slee

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		EDITH SLEE
An artist with a background in teaching, Edith runs workshops with people of all ages. She lives in Southwark, on the Southbank of the River Thames. Edith Slee is a member of the Landscape & Arts Network Committee.		Contact Edith at 51 Bankside, London SE1 9JE, Tel: 020 7928 6414, E-mail: sleebanks@aol.com
	Edith Slee makes vessels containing memories of the place they are made from – the materials she uses reflect the place. The vessel itself becomes its content. Ceramic – the ground, the foundation, bricks and tiles. I use clay from the bed of the River Thames. The forming and squeezing of the clay reflects the human intervention that has contained and constrained the river and created the city. Metal – the structure of most of the buildings constructed in the last century. Metal artefacts from the river bear witness to past communities living and working in this place. Glass – the illusory surface: strong and fragile, transparent and reflective, both welcoming and a barrier. Paper – that has become the predominant substance, the essence of commerce, food retail and of refuse.
		When fired, ceramic seals itself into a permanent icon of a place, a community, of an individual person, with the marks of their hands on the earth they were living on.

My ceramic vessels are made by the meditative method of pinching. They are made in my hands and are the size of my hands. They are meant to be held. I use a formed stoneware clay with an equal quantity of the found materials of the environment that I walk in, traces of that land, to create a vessel that seals a trace of each specific place. The clay becomes a partial transaction with the land. I need such a minute quantity to create the essence that is held in each vessel.

As I work with each community, each person – using their own earth to paint, print and create vessels – that minute fragment of earth explodes into something that can kindle inspiration and encourage them to see their own home place with respect and reverence. That earth fragment has spoken of the roots of people and holds a space open to them for contemplation. That earth fragment may engender a sufficient sense of connection to their own home place, their community and the wider world, for them to want to play a part in their sustainability.