Annie O'Donnell MRSS

My ongoing research examines how place influences sculptural practice. I am fascinated by the primal landscapes of childhood, where we first interact with people and things in space to make places. This core understanding becomes a portable 'hyperlocal' that helps us to read the physical and social elements of other sites, and of course ourselves. As I come from a long line of wanderers, connections to place have always been understood by us to be tied to movement and work - where people go and what they do to survive. 

My sculptural process is influenced by my previous career as a dance teacher and choreographer and consists of periods of archival research running concurrently with the collection of materials and found objects. These regularly relate to the synthetic materials that were originally developed in my hometown, and which now carry global narratives of toxicity. An almost meditative construction of paper collages finally results in sculptures at body scale, where assemblages of materials and readymade objects can be as long as my shinbone or as tall as I can jump with my arms above my head. I often place the works in installations that resemble theatre sets or industrial complexes, perhaps with brightly coloured wall paintings or floor coverings. Sometimes the sculptures hang as if about to land or touch walls as if at the ballet barre. Increasingly, I use wearable and portable sculptures to animate these spaces and enjoy co-creating with other artists, dancers and musicians.

I was recently commissioned to make my first major sculptural works for a major public institution, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA) for the exhibition Chemical City (winner of the North East Culture Awards' Best Exhibition 2022), and am a nominated recipient of the Henry Moore Foundation Artist Award 2022. My current project Company Town explores links between Teesside (UK) and South Chicago (US) working class communities affected by deindustrialisation, through international collaboration and research visits.