Nickola Pottinger on her show of sculptures at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum

The Jamaican British theorist Stuart Corridor known as cultural id “a matter of ‘turning into’ in addition to ‘being’”, a nod to the duality of post-colonial existence. The artist Nickola Pottinger takes this dichotomy head-on in her first solo museum exhibition, fos born, on view on the Aldrich Modern Artwork Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut and curated by the establishment’s chief curator Amy Smith-Stewart.

Pottinger’s emotive, natural sculptures, totems to her Jamaican heritage and West Indian upbringing within the Crown Heights neighbourhood of Brooklyn, implicate the viewer in their very own “matter of ‘turning into’”—fraught, ferocious undertakings full of previous magic and new views.

She calls these figures duppies, a reference to the chimeric, night-walking spirits of Jamaican folklore, and constructs them from furnishings, bones, chook cages, gilded Yagua leaves and a panoply of different recycled supplies that toe the road between trash and treasure. Her creatures are draped in pigmented paper pulp that Pottinger creates from household paperwork, rubble and first drafts utilizing her mom’s handheld kitchen mixer, one more layer within the private and cultural palimpsest of her observe. Pottinger’s ghosts have a presence that’s each unsettling and hypnotic, inviting viewers into her historical past.

Fos born attracts on the current beginning of Pottinger’s daughter, Zora, as its thematic centrepiece. The marvelously lumpy Give tanks and praises (2025) incorporates a forged of the artist’s pregnant torso, positioning the act of human creation as each a young and carnal course of.

This sculpture is considered one of a group of brand name new works paying tribute to motherhood that the artist created specifically for the exhibition. Whether or not hanging from the wall, sitting on a pedestal or mendacity on the ground, Pottinger’s humanoid reliquaries discover familiarity within the seemingly unknown, braiding disparate narratives collectively into talismans. There’s a flux to those sculptures, a way that their “turning into” might occur at any second and in any anarchic vogue. A part of this pressure lies in Pottinger’s penchant for line—initially skilled in drawing, not in sculpture, she developed a extremely private, speculative process for her duppies, lending them a singular, haunting high quality.

The Artwork Newspaper caught up with Pottinger to speak ghosts, spirits and childhood bedrooms.

The Artwork Newspaper: Are you serious about how these figures discuss to one another within the galleries whilst you’re planning a present?

Nickola Pottinger: This was truly my first time actually putting the works for an exhibition of mine. Beforehand, I made the work, after which the gallerist and I might simply set it up. This time, [Aldrich chief curator Amy Smith-Stewart] and I sat down with a flooring plan I had drawn out and my husband printed photos of every of the person works and we mocked it up; we wished to guarantee that it had a way of the narrative all through the three rooms through which the works are proven.

There’s some older work in there—the genesis of the observe that started as a wall aid was from a present in 2022. We have been making an attempt to be very considerate about how the work has advanced over time and spotlight the way in which themes and supplies reappeared all through the work. Even the location of the work—for one of many bigger sculptures, there are drawings on the floor that mirror the gestures of the bodily sculpture that is diagonally throughout from it.

All of it occurred intuitively. I do not go into a piece saying, “I will make a goat.” I be taught and make by way of utilizing my fingers. There is a channeling course of as I am working that takes me to a different place. And so I am all the time rewarded with this shock, this reward in the long run. I might say 75% of the way in which by way of the work, I’ve a greater understanding of the course through which I am going. After which there’s an modifying course of that occurs as properly the place I am constructing, however then additionally breaking it down bodily, both throwing the work or breaking the work and constructing it once more.

While you discuss making as a type of modifying, is there a way of regeneration within the work? How does that affect the way in which we’re inspired to consider these figures?

I come out of a powerful drawing observe and have drawn for a number of years. I all the time wished to discover sculpture, however was intimidated by it, and by no means took it at school, most likely as a result of it was the costliest class and it was all the time principally males taking the category. I form of graduated from making these collage works, which I made in accordance with the identical rules as I described. It is all the time breaking and constructing. In a paper format, I used to be tearing and slicing up my very own drawings and constructing these surfaces and textures. They have been fairly huge and quilt-like. It nonetheless used lots of a number of the supplies I take advantage of now, like oil pastels and watercolours. 

Through the pandemic, once I was residence and I used to be spending rather more time with household who additionally lives close by, we might get collectively in our yard and we might inform tales. I might go to my household residence and accumulate issues that have been in my sisters’ and my room rising up. We nonetheless have e-book studies and ceramics that we made in highschool. I had principally foraged my childhood bed room and brought it residence with me.

Earlier than lockdown, I used to be enthusiastic about making artwork in a unique setting and never reaching for a similar instruments on a regular basis, to interrupt that behavior and train a unique muscle. My husband, who’s additionally an artist, paints and makes sculptures and does movie, so there was this very nice cross-pollination of supplies and modes of creating. At the moment, these reliefs for me have been form of symbollic by way of the feel aid that I used to be creating after which additionally aid emotively at the moment. They have been totems for me; I used to be making them at residence and hanging them in our lounge. 

I used to be actually nervous returning to the studio once I felt protected to be round different folks. I used to be actually nervous about how the brand new reliefs would sit with my collaged paper work, as a result of I used to be very delicate concerning the development and I did not need to veer off path. I used to be introducing these wall aid works to my paper collage works and it made sense to me. This was the best course to go. So I acquired a blessing from my drawings to proceed to pursue this format of creating.

It felt good that it was nonetheless utilizing paper, which was all the time a medium within the work however turned so particular as a result of it was archives and paperwork from both my dad and mom at residence, my grandparents or my sisters. By recontextualising them, I might suppose again to all of the issues that I’ve discovered and the tales I didn’t know. I came upon 37 years later that I form of considered these archives and paperwork as a unique type of storytelling—not by mouth, however on this three-dimensional kind. A variety of the work is about constructing upon legacy, and lots of it’s homage to household, my heritage, my ancestors and the way I used to be raised.

Being a mom impacts the inventive course of immensely. Did it change the way in which you considered creation and the way in which you carried out your observe?

I had identified about this present since earlier than I did [Art Basel Miami Beach with Mrs. Gallery in 2023], so I had a while to consider it. I did two reveals again to again and I used to be exhausted, so I took a break for a number of weeks after which discovered I used to be pregnant.

The biggest work within the present, I started whereas I used to be pregnant. I’m accustomed to engaged on the ground, to getting bodily with my items. I believe anybody that paints [or] makes sculpture is aware of that making artwork could be very bodily. I had a tough time; I nonetheless acquired in there, however I moved sluggish. At the back of my thoughts, I used to be actually excited to see the work remodel after having our child, and that turned a mantra for me. I used to be like, “I really feel like it should change the way in which I work as a result of I am gonna be in a unique way of thinking.” That is all I stored serious about. I used to be actually curious what me post-pregnancy was going to be like.

There’s two of the works which can be within the present which can be casts of my stomach. I used to be considering for some time, “Ought to I forged my stomach? Ought to I do that? Do I need to put this into the work?” It is already autobiographical, so I ended up having my husband go into the studio with me and he forged my stomach. That night time, the minute the forged was drying on my pores and skin, I began to have contractions. After which two days later I had Zora. I felt like she was all the time in collaboration with me your complete being pregnant. My mindset was that I used to be simply doing all of it for her. So yeah, it was onerous, however I would not change any of it.

Do you see your function as an artist as a religious one? Do you consider your self as an inventive agent or as a vessel for concepts?

I really feel like I am the one making the work, however I additionally really feel like there is a larger self I’m speaking with. I am a vessel in some methods as a result of I am a container for my very own spirit. I am all the time making an attempt to attach with spirit. I am all the time serious about what spark of magic or uncooked emotion comes out within the work, as a result of that feels sincere.

Even with the way in which the work is made, like utilizing my mother’s cake mixer that she had me combine black cake each vacation throughout Christmas, I’m comforted that a few of my childhood is working with me and I am working with it. It’s bizarre working with my youthful self after which issues get revealed that receded into the again of my reminiscence, which is like all the time actually stunning and a present on the identical time. Typically I take into consideration grandparents I grew up with which can be now not right here, and I take into consideration grandparents which can be nonetheless right here however dwell far-off. They’re very a lot part of the work, too, as a result of I attempt to make work about issues that I do know. And I do know solely as a lot as I do about my private historical past and what my household has been by way of and what we have lived. It’s actually necessary that I am listening to myself and on this state of channeling these reminiscences and ideas once I’m making the work.

Nickola Pottinger: fos born, till 11 January 2026, on the Aldrich Modern Artwork Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut