Isabella Roberts

The impulse to collect, admire and ascribe value to seashells seems to be inherent to humans across the world and dates back at least 100,000 years. I utilise the archetype of the obsessive collector to frame an anthropological and material study of seashells as specimens of fascination, categorisation and practicality. I have interrogated my own collection as objects of value, treasures to be adorned as jewellery, a form of currency and cultural symbols. By dissecting these material, social and historical contexts through creating impressions in ceramics, textiles and paper, developing reiterations of form at various scales in plaster, wax and ceramics, and curating objects referential to my research, my installation presents a biography of the dynamic and prolific interactions between humans and shells.