Preston, Liv
Liv Preston is heavily influenced by the material language and attitudes of West Yorkshire, where she grew up. With an obsessive interest in video games and the subterranean, her practice combines sculpture with conceptual gestures. She identifies and mines collections of objects, which may appear as inventories. Their forms of display, however, resist this traditional method of installing artworks, as they may be difficult or awkward to access. They often also imply mischief or danger in their presentation, deliberately undermining themselves in relation to their environments.
DOG QUEST, 2020, is cast from a piece of graffiti of a dog’s head, found on the slate windowsill of an outbuilding at the abandoned slate mine Pen Yr Orsedd in North Wales. Discovered originally by a friend of the artist, a team was assembled to document the drawing in situ. By framing the production of the work as a quest, the object produced exists as something closer to a treasure or relic than simply a record of a surface. The work considers the representation and consistent presence of dogs in human culture, examining both the closeness and violence of this relationship. Members of DOG QUEST are Karl Fisher, Millie Leyton, Sam Keelan, Kobby Adi, Cat Tandy and Rowan Rossetter.
- Artwork Details: 25 x 28cm
- Edition: 1 of 2 + 1 AP
- Material description: Cast of miner’s graffitti from Pen Yr Orsedd mine, lead alloy
- Credit line: © the artist. Image courtesy of the artist
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- Accession number: ACC34/2020