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					Elaine Wilson's work uses the body /figure as a means to explore gender and sexuality, artificeand nature. This is sometimes in the form of metaphor and fragmentation and at times more overtly figurative. The sculptures shown here have been made over a period of about nine years and the photographs taken at different exhibitions. During this time various experiences and residencies contributed to the development of the work. Wilson was awarded a work period at the European Ceramic Workcentre in Holland where apart from the opportunities of studio and workshop she was influenced by the work of Dutch artists Vermeer and Van Eyck. Often using literary references as starting points for work 'Phantom' exhibited at Abbot Hall in Kendall was based on a quote by Virginia Woolf in which she states 'it is far harder to kill a phantom than a reality'. The piece is made from sugar and alludes to a skirt or breast. As images of the body are always culturally constructed and the female body objectified for centuries Wilson is particularly interested as a woman in the relationship between self and perception. This is therefore inevitably a part of the work and by exploring the material/biological aspects of the body and its fetishising and ornamentation it ultimately asks who or what inhabits the skin..