Esther Stone
Esther Stone
Esther Stone is a Sculptor whose experience with grief and depression informs her practice, creating works which visualise the comfort she craves and illustrates the hardness she feels she is encouraged to have being from West Yorkshire. Stone aims to harness the softness within hard materials and the need to look within. Bringing Stone to explore the emotional connection and physical experiences from the different places in which she has lived throughout her life, reflecting on memories from childhood and what solace she finds within that. How have her sources of coping and regulation changed, becoming interested in shared mechanisms that people who have experienced loss and intense sadness have in common. Such as physical re-regulation, rocking back and forth, diving into freezing cold water or getting knocked around aggressively in the pit of a punk gig. Stone finds herself being drawn to very physical experiences like these, translating into her practice through aims of interaction and play within the work. Developing Stone’s intrigue in shared coping mechanisms for grief and its direct connection to movement. Using Curfing, where metal is cut in order to bend and weld, as she feels this embodies her themes, connected to the idea of the steel pipe being hurt to be healed, lacing the metal with second hand textiles with a memory and mark. Creating forms larger than she is, she wants them to have power away from her to make the impact of the feeling that inspired the work to feel smaller. An example of this is Stone's largest work Safe and Healthy, inspired by the constant labour of grief, a 3.2m by 2m, mild steel pipe, curved structure. It was created with 326 cuts and 994 welds done by the artist, creating a large-scale rocking form, inviting people to push and run around, welcoming and highlighting the importance of community within grief. Stone creates her work to find a place for her melancholy and a platform for others to relate and communicate through it.
Esther Stone is a Sculptor, based in Glasgow originally from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, with an Extended diploma from Leeds Arts University, shortly studying in Switzerland at The Luzern School of Applied Arts and Sciences. Stone graduated with a first class degree from The Glasgow School of Art, through the course Sculpture and Environmental art in 2025. Gaining a love of large scale, public Steel sculptures, being influenced by artists such as Gyun Her, for her connection with her grief through body and textile and Karanjit Panseer, for their connection to personal memory through their process and storytelling. Stone holds a background in Carnival, sewing and performing with Callaloo Carnival Arts and Workshops starting at the Creative arts hub, Mirfeild in 2018 collaborating with a number of arts organisations to teach since, such as The Bold Collective, Glasgow. Stone still holds the audience at the forefront of her practice, making interactive works and organising workshops as a constant aim of her work.