February

Helen Baker

Each print is an anagram of Rio Tinto Zinc. They were created for an exhibition in the mineral gallery of Manchester Museum in 1996 and are about the colonisation of land by corporate bodies and Rio Tinto Zinc in particular.

The exhibition was called Divers Memories and artists were invited to make a piece of work that related to objects in the museum.

March

Chris Avis

Chris Avis is a London based artist who uses photography, digital manipulation and soundscape to create 2D work, installation and audio visual artwork. Her interest in climate change and environmental threats is an ongoing focus of her practice

This collection of images captures the impact of global overheating and the resulting wild fires.

This trio of work are entitled ‘Poisoned’, ‘Scorched’ & ‘Charred’

April

Cameron Lings

Cameron Lings is a contemporary artist and sculptor based in the Northeast. In his practice aspects of time, data and statistics are combined within the context of a singular formation, in order to realise a piece that despite its abstraction, remains readable as data

His work celebrates the imagery found within data collection and and how this form of visual art can help us understand the world around us.

He uses his practice to challenge our preconceptions of environmental space and traditional ways of collecting data

May

Ursula Troche

Ursula Troche uses her creative practice to address plastic pollution by making what she calls ‘anti-art’, taking litter and embellishing it with other plastics and occasionally natural materials

By taking single use plastic out of circulation she experiments with ideas of the natural and man-made landscape and challenges how we experience our trash and the value we assign to it

Ursula is an artist and writer based on the Solway coast who incorporates walking, language, performance and litter into her practice

June

Claire Cooper-Walsh

Claire Cooper-Walsh is a mixed media artist from Worcester who’s work is concerned with changing environments, with a focus on rainforests

She uses a mixture of hand and machine sewing to create sculptural wall based work

This month she will be displaying 3 textile pieces in our gallery:

“Destruction of Rainforests”

“Wangari Maathai: A Positive Force for Change”

“Palm Oil Kills Rainforests”

July

Kate Stuart

Writer, illustrator, activist and textile artist Kate Stuart has used waste fabric to create landscapes which celebrate our place in the natural world and connections to ‘home’

The fabric scraps used in this work have no purpose other than to be patched together. Scrap embroidery thread has been saved from the bin and each piece is backed with unwanted table linens (rescued from a hotel laundry on the Isle of Skye!)

These thoughtful artworks ask us to appreciate the small and seemingly insignificant. It reminds us that we are not separate from the natural world, but are part of the fabric of it

August

Shona Fraser

Each of these pieces of embroidery is the shape of a woodland which has been destroyed or disrupted as a result of the construction of the high speed rail HS2

Shona is inspired by the natural world and concerns about the climate emergency are at the heart of her creative practice.

She has implemented embroidery, beadwork, appliqué and felting techniques to highlight how each of these ecosystems is/was completely unique. It was within this uniqueness that true beauty lies

September

Sarah Strachan

‘An Invitation to Drift’ 

“This work consists of 33 hexagonal ceramic units or vessels which tessellate to form a proposal for a restoration initiative for the Essex native oyster.  Prompted by fieldwork in the River Blackwater estuary for a workshop at the British Science Festival, ‘An invitation to drift’  imagines a habitat where a  balance can be reached between native oysters and invasive slipper limpets”

This piece was originally designed to be a floor based installation. In our gallery space we can view the work head on, creating a visual reference to a hive 🐝 in keeping with our #beethechange 2022 initiative

This piece asks us to consider how we design the space around us with care to accommodate different ways to exist on this earth

October

Our Community

‘Bee The Change’ 

So many beautiful submissions have been dropped off for our #beethechange community art project

Thank you for such a wonderful response! We honestly couldn’t do what we do without this supportive and engaged community

Exhibition will run until the end of October

November

Beth Barlow

“Plastic Milk Bottle Animals”

This project is part of an ongoing struggle to utilise plastic waste found by waterways or drains, capturing it and turnout from single use into precious art.

The project saw Beth developing a new way of attaching the parts without using noxious glues which are largely useless on plastic.

The creatures were all inspired by photos of animals who had met their untimely end due to plastic.

December

Nerissa Cargill Thompson

We are very excited to be exhibiting ‘Mountains of Madness’ and an assortment of other works by Nerissa Cargill Thompson

These mixed media and textile pieces are made from recycled fabric. By casting concrete in discarded plastics, Nerissa shows us how to see everyday plastic waste in new ways