SARA TRILLO

Sara Trillo has for the past four decades negotiated an artistic practice culminating from a deep connection with and love of place. This begins in the county where she was born, Kent, but is equally embraced in whichever county, or country, she finds herself working. She has been aware of ecological issues throughout her career. Trillo has a deep understanding of what is beneath our feet, and what we have to lose, and matches this with an ability to bring us into this immesive debate through her work.

Trillo locates and explores lost landscape features and vanished settlements. She identifies unfamiliar locations or landmarks on old maps and creates walking expeditions, searching for remaining traces of hidden histories. These walks include performative sharing of narratives about the mythologies of locations under investigation, bringing hidden histories alive through audience participation.

She creates, or we might say re-creates or re-instates, objects through the language of sculpture, inspired by what is uncovered – from works that reference small handheld tools to engaging immersive installations. She employs archaic making skills and processes such as flint-napping and plant dying.

Her work is an extension of her background as a painter. A skilful maker, her practice crosses disciplines and materials, employing a rigorous and critical attitude to “making.”

The transmission of her work is her connection with like-minded people who can be part of an informed awareness.

‘I have made a variety of cloaks to wear whilst walking, which function as either maps of routes, elements of my story-making, or props for interaction with my audience. In the spirit of a pilgrimage, I create ceramic talismanic objects to give fellow walkers to mark their participation.’

Her latest work is an investigation of Dene holes – deep shafts dug into chalk of unknown age and purpose. She aims to locate and enter some of the thousands of dene holes believed to be concealed in the Kent landscape. So far, she has descended into five and encountered seven others.

Her recent works were exhibited at Chaleur Humaine, as part of the 2023 Dunkerque Triennale Art and Industrie, and she is currently working on a new commission from Kent Downs/Creative Folkestone.

Fillingham and Company are working with Sara Trillo on a series of collages inspired by the Cornish landscape and histories. Follow us on Instagram for news and updates.