Sheila Gaffney - Class Forms

Sheila Gaffney is a sculptor with an evident dedication to crafts in her work. Drawing is a distinct mode of sculptural thinking in her practice and Class Forms demonstrates lines of sculptural thought modeled in both two and three dimensions. Gaffney is a life modeler, but it is the definition of life that is critical in this instance. 

This exhibition presents a small sculptural vignette and a series of drawings that explore the concept of EMBODIED DREAMING as a distinct idea in the sculptural imaginary. 'Embodied Dreaming' is a term borrowed from the psychoanalyst Christopher Bollas in his work ‘The Mystery of Things’. 

Putting the self into the real through play, children are engaged in a kind of embodied dreaming that brings elements of inner life into the world. The quiet continuous embodiments of dream mark the passing of time with signs of the child’s idiom. [1] 

The starting point for the works exhibited are family photographs, not used as memory objects but as little segments of the world in a moment of time. The point of departure for Gaffney when making sculpture and drawing is a period of modeling from these images to explore how we might articulate our consciousness. 

Sheila Gaffney is the Head of Fine Art at Leeds College of Art and leads the Sculpture strand within the BA(Hons) Fine Art programme.