Discipline
Architectural / Monumental / Relief
Conceptual
Installation / Land / Site-specific
Kinetic/Mobile
Political/Religious
Material
Found Objects
Textile
Wood/Paper
Region
London
South East
Biography
Elspeth Penfold is a Bolivian/Argentinian multi-disciplinary artist residing in the UK since 1970. She is an elected member of the Royal Society of Sculptors, a member of ArtCan.org, and an alumni of Wimbledon College of Art, Falmouth University and the Turps Banana MASS cc.
Elspeth's work in spinning and knotting draws inspiration from the Incan history and techniques of 'Quipu' (knot work) and the Quechua language of the native Andean people. Her artistic journey has been enriched by the warm welcome from her family connections in North Yorkshire, which she has deeply appreciated both as a student and later through her marriage.
Her work is included in publications like Walking Bodies and Ways to Wander the Gallery by Triarchy Press, and SALT by Art Walks Porty. Her commissions include Reclaiming the Narrative with POW Thanet at Turner Contemporary, Margate; Intertidal Calligraphy with The Museum of London Archeology, Whitstable; Port at Art Walk Porty, Edinburgh; and Walking with Ghosts, a live art commission with The Imperial War Museum, IWM 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund, Folkestone.
In 2025, Elspeth's sculpture Toll has been selected for the 'Sculpture in the Landscape Exhibition 2025', running from April to November at the Himalayan Garden & Sculpture Park in Ripon.
Enchanted Charms Led by artist Elspeth Penfold, Enchanted Charms was created during a unique walking performance as a part of Fruiting Bodies an exhibition by the arts group Changeable Beast at The Old Parcels Office Arts in Scarborough. The walk was anchored by a pleached pear tree grown in Pickering. The tree served as both starting point and destination for a guided wander that incorporated indigenous Andean thinking, weaving, embodied storytelling, and poetry readings. The route was not predetermined, but rather a 'drift' inside the gallery. It was guided by eco poetic lunes. Lunes are a form of Haiku. The Champion Pear (lunes) for this performance were written by Dr. Jonathan Skinner during a collaborative walk with Elspeth in 2018. The Rhizomatic Wander encouraged conversations based on both fact and speculation. Participants were given the poetry seed lunes to read and they used handmade rope to record their experiences using knots called “quipus".At the end of the Rhizomatic wander the ropes were woven into enchanted charms to girdle the tree, their energy entwined as a fruiting body.