Stuart Macbeth on a university show by the sculptor Alice Anderson

The more my everyday existence fills up with digital data, the greater my need to come to grips with material, physical data,” explains Alice Anderson.

The French-British sculptor is best known for works made with copper wire. During performances which can last for days, Anderson weaves found and donated objects in thin metal thread with her body. In luminous reds, oranges and pinks she will preserve recognisable shapes which at a distance have the appearance of solid mass. But get up close and you can examine the effects of stretching and pressure on distorted, tiny shards of wire.

“I am not suggesting a resistance to the digital world,” she tells me, citing the emergence of websites such as Wikipedia, Instagram and YouTube, “but exploring physiological responses to algorithmic and artificial memory.

“I select an object when I have the feeling that it is disappearing from my environment. It is always a big commitment because I never undo or buy another object to replace those that have been performed.

“I decided to immerse myself in the memory processes that are being changed irreversibly by the digital era. Our everyday memory is being externalised. The digital revolution is probably going to turn out as decisive for the mechanisms of human memory as the invention of writing was.”

Objects she has “memorised” through her work to date include a telescope, a laptop, and a 1967 Ford Mustang. For her 20152105 work 181 Kilometres, she trod that distance to “spin” a two-metre copper sphere. As she spins and mummifies artefacts in wire, Anderson strives towards a meditative state of concentration and choreography.

She works with treated copper that won’t discolour with time, liking the material’s unpredictability, its conductivity, its luminosity: “During a performance the copper gives off shiny, hypnotic reflections that lead you to another state of mind,” she states.

Another example is Elevator Data, the lift installed at her new exhibition in Oxford Brookes’ Glass Tank space. The sculpture, first shown at the Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton in Paris last year, took four weeks to create.

Anderson explains: “The action was a sort of ritual dance. The repetitive movements, and the energy generated by the body guided me to a spiritual freedom and a great creative force.” She adds that the piece acts as a bridge to her Time Capsules, new works in recycled steel also on show at Brookes. She calls the creation of these “quasi funerary rituals.”

The capsules contain objects donated by Brookes’ students. They were asked to pick items which had had significance for them within their lifetimes, and include hard disks, trainers, and VHS/TV combo set. The capsules around them are coated in layers of rust, which act as protective barriers: “The result is more conceptual because the viewer has to look into his or her memory to mentally visualise the object.,” she says.

“They mirror how fast our memory is subject to the evanescence of the world surrounding us.”

She adds: “I am convinced that art can propose an alternative to what is established.”

  • Alice Anderson: Time Capsules and Elevator Data at the Glass Tank Gallery, Oxford Brookes University’s Headington Campus, Gipsy Lane, until March 24