Casey Nicholls-Bull

I see The Witch and The Clown as figures of rebellion in our contemporary world. Their bumbling, chaotic, seemingly illogical movements counteract the speed and violence of today's accelerant, algorithmic, self-annihilating systems. They slow us down, reorient us, help us tend the world more meaningfully. They're queer, they're camp, they're so dated they're timeless. They demand resilience, humour, wit, and craftiness. They offer us re-enchantment. I work as a Witch should; embracing the spinster lifestyle and growing, spinning, dyeing, and weaving from seed to cloth. I dedicate this work to my dearest witches and my beloved clowns: the Harlequins, the Pierrots, the Jesters and the Fools.

Pierrot's sleeve and a net for the juggling batons

Materials collectively used in the two sculptures shown: hand-grown unspun flax, hand-spun linen, waxed linen, flax roots, candle wax, nettle fiber, indigo, woad, iron tablets, piss, hair, symplocos racemosa, rhubarb leaf, oak galls, onion skin, avocado pip, annatto seed, mannequin hand

Harlequin hat (with witch and clown's tools: spinning wheel and juggling batons)

Materials in the Harlequin Hat: Old green linen bed sheets that have laid under a garden-bed to stop the grass growing through. (Attached by and to:) Chicken wire underneath hand grown, spun, and woven linen. (Dyed with:) Passionfruit marigold flowers, pomegranate skin, eucalypt leaves, tumeric root, symplocos racemosa, oak galls, annatto seed, coffee grounds

Detail of Pierrot's sleeve underneath a scroll (a message to the clown)

Materials in these parts of the sculptures shown: hand-grown unspun flax, hand-spun linen, waxed linen, indigo, woad, iron tablets, piss, hair, symplocos racemosa, rhubarb leaf, onion skin, coffee grounds, star-shaped shell