Biography
I’m a sculptor living off-grid, having completed an MFA at University of Leeds, for which I was awarded a distinction, and won YSP’s Graduate Award 2021. After completing the MFA I set up an off-grid artist community from an old dairy in Cheshire, Ashbank Arts, where I have a studio/workshop base, and I now live in Lancaster.
A skilled metal worker and mixed media artist - welding fabrications, assemblages, sound and textiles – I have created large scale sculpture, immersive installations and alternative living structures. I’m interested in passive protest, ecology, animality, and sustainable systems of production, taking inspiration from durable culture, known as permaculture design, with its basic principles of caring for the planet, the people and sharing fairly with others.
My interest in off-grid living in these unprecedented times, has made me more acutely aware of how dependent we are, and how caught up we are, in systems which perpetuate inequality, unsustainable production and unnecessary consumption. It is both a political action and an act of solidarity with the environment. My work invites us to question how people, (and art practices), can have less impact on the planet and live in better harmony with nature.
By exploring possible new ways of working, which I describe as a Perma-art practice, I'm striving to raise ideas around connectivity, entanglement, transformation, change, and explore mindful moments of grieving, embodiment, and being-in-nature. A process of observing, working site-specifically with natural surroundings, using local material, and becoming self-aware within resonant systems, I continue to find ways of making which minimally impact on the environment, and which allow people to pause, breath and be present in the landscape.
Co-commissioned by Colours of Redbridge community members, Taravanya was create for the 'Big Small Wonders' parade, Ilford in August 2025. This video shows the mechanics being tested by artist Jessica Rost in her workshop at Ashbank Arts in Cheshire. The parade itself featured many community members carrying items they had designed and made. It brought together designers from across the UK and abroad and included work from Kinetika and artists from STOMP!
Testing Taravanya mechanics
A short film, of me setting up and having one of my off-grid baths. Taking a bath is a most joyful thing. And, making the time to take a bath, in these days, may even be seen as passive protest; a pause, a space to dream and a time to question what we really do value? Perhaps taking time out is the most radical thing we can do. To be sitting in a bath humming, is an act of resistance! During lock-down and in self-isolation, many people have had time to reflect on what is truly of value to them. I began by asking the question: Is bathing valid? But more broadly, this was a continuation of previous work which explored breathing spaces: – pauses – profound moments, activities and encounters which we experience daily, but which have no monetary value. Living off-grid has made me more acutely aware of how dependent we are, and how caught up we are, in systems which perpetuate inequality, unsustainable production and unnecessary consumption. Our time is monetised, and bathing – (like ‘time wasting ‘ and daydreaming), is treated as non-essential, a luxury. Over the last six months, I’ve been experimenting and exploring different off-grid, outdoor bathing experiences.