Welcome to Berni Marfleet Sculpture
I have worked for many years in local government as a town planner, including 20 years in Norfolk; my job included dealing with waste and recycling. I have always been fascinated by what we discard and how we regard the waste we create .. and the people who have to deal with it!
It appears like another world to which we consign those unwanted things, either mundane such as packaging or once loved and cherished items like a broken toy. Once it's in the bin and the lid is slammed shut, we sever our association and responsibility for what we have used.
But that waste is not only a resource; it can, in my eyes, have an aesthetic value! When I see piles of scrap metal in a yard I can appreciate the shapes, twists and folds of the steel; the patinas and rusty colours on the surface; the spikeness and also the solidity and mass of the pieces; objects that took human ingenuity, thought and effort to design and engineer, now discarded!
I relish capturing these objects and transforming them into a totally new identity; breathing life into them and giving them a new personality. The metamorphosis is partly determined by the objects themselves but joined together they emerge as a creation never dreamt of by their manufacturers.