John Elcock is a visual artist with an interest in landscape, birds and symbolism. Recent exhibitions include A Strange Reality at Warrington Art Gallery and selection in The Lynn Painter- Stainers Prize 2018 at Mall Galleries. His three collections of poetry are published by The Artel Press.
FOSSE
In this work specifically created for Act 1 of Material Matters, Elcock reproduced at 1:60 scale the subterranean passage underneath James St linking the ditch (fosse) of the now lost 13th century Liverpool Castle with the Mersey.
15kg of recycled cardboard was used in its construction. The sections were laminated with gesso and hole-sawn to reveal an inner core along its entire length corresponding to the medieval tunnel. A hidden media device plays fleeting images suggesting modern ideas of ‘escape’.
A section of the work features a gesso hand-tinted with ground pigment collected from Liverpool bedrock – inextricably linking materials with its subject matter.
