Power To Us

Artwork by 13 emerging female artists

Ellen Berry-McIntosh

“Currently studying Fine Art at
University of Chichester
I am exploring human form through sculpture with a focus on capturing movement using various malleable and tactile materials.
 
I create figures of different sizes using mixed materials with a strong preference for a clay element to be involved in the process.
 
My work looks at the human form stripped back, usually depicted by strips of mesh dipped in hand mixed clay slip, wrapped and draped around carefully moulded wire frames. This method creates delicate vessel-like figures in a variety of poses and positions expressing varying degrees of movement, strain and mobility.
 
I draw from my own experiences living in a disabled body and my journeys through variable
mobility.”

Lucy Carter

“My work consists of 2D digital prints, which are engulfed by the use of colour, spacial contradiction and perspectival shifts.
 
Pictorial elements of both interior and exterior spaces
become combined with the relation towards spaces that are otherworldly, and can be seen as non-functional.
 
With the use of vibrant colour, form and shape, I interpret spaces in a different way, a way to allow one to dream, to allow one to be immersed in a space, which is not realistically constructed”

Jess Curtis

“Combining sculpture with digital media, I create reiterations of a ring that my late grandmother once owned. Each iteration evidences various levels of abstraction, with the intent of toying with notions of ambiguity and concealment.
 
A reduction of contextual information in conjunction with visual abstraction aims to create distance between the viewer and the work, thus asserting my agency as an artist celebrating an object that I honour as sacred.
 
The lines between artist and archaeologist blur in my practice; although I identify my grandmother’s ring with someone I have lost, I simultaneously identify it with something I have found: a body of work that identifies with growth, rebirth, and transmutation of artefactual incarnations, each products of appropriation that hold their own respective philosophies.”

Chloe Davies

“I combine the intense visuality of oil paint and vascularity of my subject to produce conversational pieces that heightens the immersive experience between the painting and the viewer.
 
I intend to provoke thought about the impact media and society have on what it is like to be a woman and to be identified as and with a women’s body.
 
My current art practice is about relationships: the relationship between the hapticity of paint application and the subject of the female form, and the relationship between myself, the author of the art presented, and the audience”

Esmae Dougherty-Price

“My practice is predominately crafts-based, using ceramics and the employment of mediums such as textiles to recognise the debates surrounding craft’s relationship to contemporary art, the medium’s marginality and using it to emphasise ‘craft’s potential for liberating self expression’.
 
The incorporation of these mediums and processes within my practice, often identified as ‘women’s work’, allows me to explore my curiosity surrounding gender, the body, and present unique views of contemporary society through art to a wider audience”

Louise Hall

“I explore conversations of postcolonial ideas around the Black British experience in the UK and the diaspora. I’m interested in materiality of fabric and language to investigate social issues within the UK and the BAME experience.
 
Challenging concerns of colonial narrative and history and the impact within education and many other aspects of society, the use of non-violent imagery within the works represent violent traumatic events with ties to plantations, colonial history and transatlantic slave trade.”

Rebecca Harte

“I am a visual artist who creates soft, feminine life drawings in response to the online figure drawing classes I attend: Figure drawing with Body Confidence and Fat Life Drawing.

While I do try to achieve a likeness to the models I focus less on theory and tradition, focusing instead on being present, observing the model within a space and being part of an inclusive community of artists. It’s particularly rewarding to create work of fat, disabled, non-binary and queer bodies to represent their strength, beauty, softness and femininity in a world that is generally hostile towards them.”

Caitlin Holford

“Alma, a character created by myself, is inspired by the myth of the sculptor Pygmalion whose love for a statue he created was so great that it enabled the statue to come to life in the form of an exquisitely beautiful woman.
 
Just as the statue was created as a result of Pygmalion’s love, Alma is a product of her husband’s desire. In this series the images are taken from the perspective of Alma’s husband and explore the mystery of the mundane as Alma is seen carrying out the familiar act of eating. Beneath her mask, Alma is deeply unhappy, feeling completely objectified by her husband’s obsession.”

Samantha March

“My work is inspired by the elements and forces of nature. Although the fluid art movement is relatively young, I have become deeply committed to this approach: it is messy and addictive but allows me to explore the intricacies of mother nature’s blueprints for perfection.
 
The spectrum of colour and shape found in the sea, the sky and even the flora, which change constantly lends itself to this method, which is represented in my work.
 
There is an element of the alchemist to this method of painting that also appeals to me. With this art form I am constantly searching for unconventional materials and ideas to help me process and express the wonders of the natural world around us.”

Jazmine Saunders

“I work on commissions to create bespoke paintings with a personal meaning for the individual as well as making art with symbolic meaning based around the theme of intertwining humans with nature.
 
As humans we have lost the ability to connect naturally to the spiritual sense of self, instead connecting and communicating through a series of unnatural man-made forces.
 
My work is created through a process-led approach and makes references to feminism and empowerment. As a female painter and sculptor my field of study is body casting and in welding and how it can be used as a tool to create different
textures.”

Georgia Megan Smith

“My practice is centred on class, youth culture, and the condition of being human. I create large-scale paintings on canvas, drawing upon my own social and cultural surroundings for inspiration.
 
I grew up in Aldershot, so my lived experiences, thoughts, and imaginations are heavily influenced by my working-class upbringing.
 
My work attempts to critique the issue of stereotyping that often occurs in the representation of working-class people. By amplifying such stereotypes, I also illustrate my dark sense of humour, mocking the idea that every working-class/ young person can be categorized this way.
 
Additionally, my paintings aim to eulogize a modern-day, working-class society with the purpose of glorifying its citizens yet highlighting their struggles.”

Georgia Redwood

“I make sound works, performance and prints that explore the ideas of hidden labour, equality and accessibility.
 
I work with individuals to make artworks that amplify the importance of their labour in their workplace and workers like them in institutional and organisational structures more widely.
 
My practice is built upon extensive research into current and historical working conditions within the UK, and interviews about labour and working practices.
 
My most recent work ‘Key Staff’ consists of nine sound broadcasts and accompanying mono prints. The broadcasts are edited montages of audio recordings of labour carried out by outsourced cleaners and security guards at Arts University Bournemouth (AUB).”

Amy Standing

“I am a 19-year-old artist from the south coast. Currently my work is focused around textiles and paint. I enjoy the unusual contrast between stereotypical beauty and unease.
 
I create garments, patterns and fabrics that are associated with beauty and often daintiness. To this I add the additional garment that will drag the viewer into uncertainty when looking at my paintings.
 
Covering the head, eyes or mouth, a certain humanity is removed from my figures – a stark contrast to the beautiful outfit donned.
My art aims to confuse, intrigue and shock.”