Sculpture by Jo Bellamy. Steel cubes and a smaller fragile thread cube, stacked and lit creating dramatic large shadows resembling large structures.

We are contained in many ways throughout our lives, contained within our family, our home, our memories and in the façade we present to the world. I am intrigued by our capacity to exist in multiple dissonant states simultaneously, to feel both contained and excluded, at once safe and threatened. For memory to be not just of the past, but also of the present, and of an imagined future. I am also interested in the implications of ageing on our perception of how we are contained in the world, particularly in care settings.

Sculpture by Jo Bellamy. Three upright bronze bladelike forms on a stone base.

Thinking through making, allowing chance practice to create opportunities for the unknown and unexpected to arise, and socially engaged practice, are the drivers in my work. I work in whatever material I feel drawn to at the time, recently often in bronze and steel, frequently using light and mirrors to expand the work and distort space. I follow where the work and process take me, trusting that in doing so, strands will come together and meaning will emerge.

Winner of the Norfolk Contemporary Art Society Prize for Sculpture 2022

Sculpture by Jo Bellamy. Single upright bronze bladelike form on a tall stone base.
Sculpture by Jo Bellamy. Two small bronze forms, one with a plaster house form attached, the second only a base of a similar size, with the remnants of mesh sides visible. Placed on a mirrored base.
Sculpture by Jo Bellamy. Image of a detail of a larger work. Images shows a close up of a random mesh made of bronze. The whole piece (not visible) is a mesh cube, each side is 12.5cm. The casting process has failed to fully form the mesh which has gaps and there are holes in the structure