Allison Weightman

'Though a shotgun may seem a controversial creative instrument, it is the method by which many chose to express themselves throughout the world. In the hands of the artist it is used in full knowledge, a process balanced on the edge of the human capacity for creation and destruction'
- Georgina Coburn

Alison explains, 'Someone shot me in the leg when I was a child and this was what first motivated me to subject my work to the destructive forces of gun-fire. I have never shot a living thing and I have no desire to do so. I chose to shoot my ceramics because of my feelings. I used to shoot my ceramics because I wanted people to see the damage a gun can make. I had strong feelings against gun crime and the mess war makes of the lives of innocent people. Now I shoot my work because I have discovered that during this exploration of emotion and clay, I have developed a huge awareness of the focus required to shoot and how this focus is almost meditative to me. It has also led me to a point where I use my shotgun to produce work that is impossible to recreate in any other way . . . shooting from different angles and distances, and the effects achievable through subjecting the work to a force that is not directly applied by hand or tool meeting clay. I ask myself whether it is cathartic or learning? Perhaps it is both . . . the importance to me is the fact that I find self-expression and a purpose to what I do.'