Journey to the afterlife

2017

This project explores the concept of the afterlife. Maddock researches the story of the afterlife and what awaits humanity after death from the perspective of multiple religions. She explores this through a diverse and varied number of pieces, including painting, print, drawing, mark making, portraiture and digital collage, film and moving image and moving finally into sculpture. The last outcome to this project was a collection of miniature clay sculptures. The artist toys with religion creating figures of varying sizes and design, assigning each with a very mundane name, such as ‘Clive’, ‘Nigel’ and ‘Barbara’. She presents these characters as Gods creating a religion of her own. From her research, she highlights the continued concept of a greater power that controls all elements of the world we currently live in. This manifests in different ways, in some religions in multiple personalities and in others a single individual. Each figure was made from terracotta recycled clay which was left to dry naturally making the figures increasingly delicate despite them being ‘Godly’. Other figures were made from oak which the artist hand carved from logs. The style of the characters reflects that of prehistoric sculptures which is a key influence on the artists ongoing work. The display of these artworks consisted of Maddock creating a cave wall, covered in cave paintings to reflect the prehistoric style of her sculptures and to highlight the age and necessity of religion and faith itself which has been prevalent since the beginnings of recorded history and has continued unwavering to the present day.