Lindsay iliff

I am a sculptor currently hand-building clay vessels that use my body as a reference point. Making allows me to be with the fullness of living on this planet now. Through this process, I have access to a kind of cellular memory.

I feel my body as container; as tree. I am interested in the relationship of inside/outside. I am attracted to pattern and natural forms. To trees, dwellings, stupas; the timeless landscape of New Mexico. My recent work includes a group based on the Baobab trees of Madagascar, Africa, and Australia. I honor these ancient mother succulents that have an amazing capacity to store water and create eco-systems for their surrounds. Baobabs inhabited Earth long before humans; in a sense, they have witnessed our becoming. There is a tension created between my original intentions for a piece and the clay form that wants to emerge. Baobabs provide a starting point for emotional grounding and my continuing exploration of  the clay medium and the possibilities of form. It has been said that making sculpture is a kind of choreography. I agree.

Lindsay Iliff received her BFA in Sculpture from Boston University's School of Fine Arts in 1976. There she created life-size figures out of metal-and-wood armatures and clay. Living in NYC in the late seventies and early eighties, she attended classes at the Feminist Art Institute and served as prop assistant to Carolee Shneemann in her performance, Swing. By 2001, Iliff had responded to the call of New Mexico and returned to studio practice. She has worked in various mediums: painting, encaustic, cardboard. Her work has been shown at Highlands University, Las Vegas, NM, the NM Art League's exhibition, Biologique, in Albuquerque, and in 2018, group shows at City of Mud and Keep Contemporary in Santa Fe, NM.