Holly Rozier - Bleeding Scabby Blob, 2013, Textile Mixed Media, 40x40x150cm

Holly Rozier – Grotesque Greatness

Holly Rozier is a mixed-media textile artist from Brighton, UK.

Holly Rozier - Bleeding Scabby Blob, 2013, Textile Mixed Media, 40x40x150cm
Holly Rozier – Bleeding Scabby Blob, 2013,

“Private challenges emotionally motivate my creative production, with the process of making these beings becoming a means of catharsis.  I channel troubles, anxieties, passions and thoughts I would rather forget in to my work, where it is contained underneath the skins of these creatures.

“My work manifests itself as an exploration of the juxtaposition between beauty and the grotesque. It has the ability to intrigue, attract and repel the viewer simultaneously. I contort, inflate and extend the bodily forms into a new breed or hybrid of a being. These surreal anthropomorphic forms could be human, animal, plant or alien; genetically engineered or naturally evolved, alive or dead?

Holly Rozier - Separation, 2015, Textiles Mixed Media, 120cm x 80cm x30cm
Holly Rozier – Separation, 2015,

“My chosen field of practice is soft sculpture. This highly controlled exercise allows me to create voluptuous, fleshy forms that remain malleable and tactile; whilst the challenge of using soft materials to create substantial forms keeps creation exciting.

“The soft and luxurious qualities inherent in the materials I use are contradictory to the coarse and sometimes unpleasant emotions instigating their creation. The visible stitches all over the surface evoke mental scars. Wounds which I have caused and repaired. Everything that is susceptible to transformation is cut and sewn. Contrasting ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ fabrics; hessian sacking and nylon tights are used to create the appearance of skin. Alongside, rich silky fabrics are used to create intricate and beautiful, yet putrid and wet, sections of innards exposed through the ‘skins’ of the forms.

Holly Rozier - Separation (detail), 2015, Textiles Mixed Media, 120cm x 80cm x30cm
Holly Rozier – Separation (detail), 2015

“My most recent work is beginning to focus on the idea that these living organisms are growing in a permanent site, fixing themselves to surfaces with their limb-like extrusions or roots. I aim to create the idea that these equivocal parasitic creatures are invading the space, feeding off the location they have fixed themselves upon. The act of the creatures invading and completely inhabiting the space is representative of the feelings in my head. Sometimes I dislike my work, not due to aesthetic qualities, but because I know what is captured within the piece.”

Holly Rozier - Untitled (detail), 2014, Textile mixed media, 130x100x50cm
Holly Rozier – Untitled (detail), 2014

What’s not to love about Holly’s work? Soft sculptures take sinister forms, prompting a morbid fascination. They’re big, they’re soft, we know that they pose no threat, but we are reluctant to engage with them in the first instance.

We’ve seen many soft sculpture artists who explore the area where softness transforms a seemingly innocent object into something quite different and Holly stretches this idea by building creations that are deliberately disturbing. They’re comfortable nightmares, friendly but fearful, soft yet far from safe. I love ’em.

Holly Rozier - Unnatural Forms (series of 10), 2014, Textile Mixed Media, (Various Sizes) 20x20cm-3x3cm
Holly Rozier – Unnatural Forms (series of 10), 2014

Visit Holly’s website to enjoy more of her oh so deliciously dark work.

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