WIP Work in Progress: PhD Exhibition

Annette Mills
Working with fibre, plant material and cob, Annette researches and incorporates traditional basketry techniques to create dynamic and tactile sculptural forms. She works with a variety of materials and plants which she can grow, harvest and forage: daffodils, iris, grasses, rush and willow. Using these plants, she makes cordage, braids or fibres to weave or coil. By combining them with the ancient techniques of looping and cob she makes baskets with a contemporary twist exploring concepts linked to containment, the haptic and transitional space.

LouLou Morris: ‘Identity Shrines’
LouLou makes tapestry sculptures exploring the connections between emotional journeys and movement through the landscape; although the main focus of her work is weaving as an evocation of loss narratives, these pieces are about aspects of identity, the affect of, and effect on the natural world.

Simon Olmetti
Simon’s practice focuses on queering the British landscape, nature, and ecology, particularly its liminal spaces like forests, stone circles and other places connected to some form of mythology. He considers queering as an act of (re)appropriation and transformation, in order to free it from centuries of patriarchal oppression. Simon’s research is guided by the use of queer ecology and eco-feminism, together with alternative spirituality, magic and rituals. The aim is to reclaim the use of the natural landscape, recuperating the past in order to create new possibilities and futures, through photography, drawing and performance.

Elizabeth Ransom: ‘Immigration Day’
In Elizabeth’s series Immigration Day, she returns to her first home in America exactly twenty years after her Immigration Day. Through using cyanotypes and photograms Elizabeth creates a record of this personally significant location. Cataloguing the rain that fell on that day, the textures of the trees and the cracks in the pavement. Each impression fixed on to the light sensitive paper acts as a marker of time. Each image documenting the space providing evidence of its existence and a reminder of past memories.