Ideas for this series ‘Up the duff’ came from culturally-specific architecture – everything from pigeon cots to Buddhist temples, things that we don’t frequently see in our everyday Western lives. This is a bronze cast of such work, referencing some ancient structures found in faraway countries. She used scrap mass-produced building material, plywood to make the form, and raw pigment in the bronze patina. She aims to create a dialogue between industrial material and hand-crafted pieces. Earlier and larger versions of this motif are now sited at La Fortezza del Girifalco in Tuscany.

Leventon graduated from Central St Martins with a degree in sculpture, following which she has received multiple awards for her designs and contributions to the art community including the Henry Moore Sculpture Trust and the Felix and Spear Exhibition Award. She has exhibited work internationally, which often includes site-specific environmental installations.

Artist Statement

I make sculptural installations, for indoors and environmental art in the landscape. Experimenting with new materials and using them in innovative ways, such as Celotex Insulation, central heating pipes, recycled mobile phones and paperbacks, as well as more durable stone, water earth and wood. Some pieces are designed to promote meditation on vulnerability and on the illusion of solidity and permanence in life – one of the continuing themes in my work. Many of the works address green issues and reference the lost, hidden or forgotten.

Our Planting Scheme

By utilising the camellia and doodia (fern) as a picture frame, this sculpture is presented as a lost artifact that has been hidden gently away, waiting to be found. These two plants are mixed with lamium and Arabis, denoting the modern materials that are full of vibrance and colours attracting wildlife to this once lost prize.