Alastair and Fleur Mackie
PONT CREEK, 2021
Air Ink silkscreen print
42 x 59.4 cm
edition of 5 + 2AP
Alastair and Fleur Mackie’s sculptural practice is one of contrasts. It is as labour-intensive as it is formally effortless, as grounded in ideas of nature as it is in the intrinsically human struggle to define a role within the environment; it is as intellectually ambitious as it is aesthetically understated.
Alastair grew up in an agricultural community in Cornwall, UK while Fleur’s childhood was split between Cameroon, France, and the UK. They met at art school in London in the late 90s. Initially their creative practices were separate, but over time their work has evolved into a natural collaboration.
In 2011 they moved to live and work in Cornwall, the landscape of which has played a key role in the shaping of their vocabulary. Naturally occurring elements (native metals, wood, sea shells) are meticulously rearranged and transformed in a knowingly quixotic attempt to order life’s primordial chaos.
Both born in 1977, Alastair and Fleur have shown extensively in the UK and internationally.