Says Ingrid of her practice: “For as long as I can remember I have had a fascination with shells. Beach holidays peppered with memories of combing for treasures. Looking for elusive Cowrie shells was often the adventure. With childhood awe I would listen to tales of magnificent Cowrie shells that were found by family friends… the longing to find these treasures burned deep, and yet they evaded my tiny hands.

I remember the old curiosity shop made from shells; it’s a place that lives in my memory, location lost to time, somewhere…trinkets and souvenirs, curiosities …. Idealised memories from colonial habits in the Anthropocene.

Every shell a perfect home that protected a life lived. Washed ashore, sun bleached and resting, waiting to turn and turn and turn into sand. Back to the earth, back to the ocean…. Leaving shells for the earth.

I try to capture the shells, their weight & presence, trying to describe their awe. Drawing on memory; marvel at these ocean jewels, like treasure, treasured in situ.

Symbolic Dreamscapes: Shells

‘Time present and time past

Are both perhaps present in time future,

And time future contained in time past.

If all time is eternally present

All time is unredeemable.’

Four Quartets: Burnt Norton by TS Elliot

Signed, dated and titled on back.