{"id":887715,"date":"2026-06-23T18:56:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T18:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/887715\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T18:56:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T18:56:23","slug":"lenka-clayton-reflects-on-motherhood-and-finding-connection-in-everyday-objects-colossal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/887715\/","title":{"rendered":"Lenka Clayton Reflects on Motherhood and Finding Connection in Everyday Objects \u2014 Colossal"},"content":{"rendered":"

To open a new film from Art21<\/a>, artist Lenka Clayton<\/a> encapsulates her way of thinking and making: \u201cLooking at things that are supposed to behave a certain way and purposefully misunderstanding how they should be used, it\u2019s really important to me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The Cornwall-born artist works across media, creating both meditative animations<\/a> via typewriter and immersive installations of gathered artifacts. Collecting is central to Clayton\u2019s practice both materially and conceptually, and she often works from her own experiences, particularly those around becoming a parent and her life in Pittsburgh (she even started an open-source residency<\/a> program for artist mothers).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

In the short documentary<\/a>, we see Clayton\u2019s culinary installation of colorful tongs hung in a grid on her studio wall alongside a project completed when her son was a baby. Each time she retrieved a spool of thread, button, acorn, bottle cap, or myriad other object from her child\u2019s mouth, she documented the tiny finding and created an enormous, photographic grid that speaks to the care required to protect young life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is only connection in life,\u201d she says, \u201cand my work is just looking at those connections, so that we can create a shared experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

This segment is part of Art21\u2019s Human Nature episode, alongside Colombian artist Delcy Morelos<\/a>, and both are available for viewing on Art21\u2019s website<\/a>. Find more from Clayton on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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