Cable Depot, Sofia
Liz Elton
The practice of Liz Elton is rooted in overarching concerns about nourishment, waste, regeneration, and our relationship with the earth, while creating compositions inspired by Dutch still life. Elton sees her position as anti-heroic, immersed in the repetitive daily tasks of life, with anxiety about the future captured in the material, the pigments, and the subject matter of her work. Biodegradable compost bags form the material substance of Tender, which hovers somewhere between landscape painting and sculpture. Many of the pigments used are produced from the artist’s own kitchen waste, directly referencing her body’s life cycle, through the daily food she prepares and consumes.
Although her work is ephemeral, it carries within it an idea of eternity, of the potential for re-growth and renewal. Her material sources are directly captured in her Compost Bin series of photographs, of the contents of her kitchen waste. Elton also donates part of the proceeds of sales from these series to food bank charities, aiming to capture a sense of alchemy, translating waste into food, hinting at market capitalism being transformed into a practical cycle of care.
The ephemerality of Tender offers a contemplative experience: seemingly breathing gently as the air moves around them, slowly showing their changes, the artworks embrace both making and unmaking, death and life, anxious, but carrying the possibility of hope.
