Artist Statement

My research-based practice emerges from moments of revelation when scientific understanding shifts my perception of reality—when the invisible architecture of the world suddenly becomes tangible. These glimpses into the universe’s underlying order create a visceral sense of participation in something magnificent and larger than myself. The recognition that the same forces shaping galactic structures also govern the formation of crystals or the folding of proteins generates a profound feeling of aliveness and connection. I’m compelled to translate these moments of elemental intimacy into embodied encounters, making the imperceptible accessible through material form.

I’m fascinated by different modes of knowing: the rational frameworks through which we understand phenomena, and the visceral, sensory ways we actually experience them. Science appears purely cerebral, but by materialising concepts that exist beyond human perception – molecular structures, geological processes, quantum behaviours – I create opportunities for intuitive, embodied understanding. This translation between abstract knowledge and physical experience reveals how the conceptual and the sensory are complementary ways of engaging with reality.

My process begins with rigorous research into cutting-edge scientific thinking, followed by material experimentation that allows these ideas to develop into sculptures and installations. This research-based practice increasingly involves working directly with scientists through residencies and collaborations, creating a genuine dialogue between disciplines. The resulting works investigate recurring fascinations: the generative forces that animate matter into living systems, the uncanny parallels between molecular behaviours and human social interactions, and the mathematical patterns—Fibonacci spirals, geometric forms, crystalline lattices—that seem to govern organisation of matter across all scales.

I’m drawn to moments of transformation: embryonic development, enzyme catalysis, geological formation, the emergence of consciousness. These works explore how individual elements transcend their separateness to create interdependent wholes, whether carbon atoms forming diamonds or humans building communities. My practice increasingly grapples with our environmental momen, using ancient materials like rammed earth and cob to address contemporary crises, creating works that support biodiversity while questioning our relationship with permanence and transience.

Through this research-based practice, I investigate how we might understand time, transformation, and our place within the larger systems that shape existence, using art as a form of research that reveals what conventional scientific inquiry cannot reach alone.

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Sculpture installation CS6 – 10 (bioresin, 2013) showing early human embryo development scaled to human size, exemplifying Briony Marshall’s research-based practice of making microscopic life tangible.