Anne Waggot Knott: Furnishing

Anne Waggot Knott is a geographer and emerging artist living and working on the fringes of the Lake District. Inspired by a childhood growing up in Scotland and several years of post-university work with scientists, innovators, problem solvers and creatives all over the world, she has just completed a foundation course and is opening a studio in Cockermouth, Cumbria.

"My practice focuses on our physical and metaphorical journeys and connections with the landscape. Through printmaking, photography, digital imaging and sculpture, I explore human interaction with place and space, and its effect on identity and sense of belonging. The darker aspects of our landscape hold a particular fascination and I like to blur the boundaries between methods and media.

I am currently completing a foundation year at Carlisle College, and to our dismay Covid coincided neatly with our Final Major Project. Before the pandemic erupted I was planning large-scale landscape works: giant masks drowning in lakes, gasping for air; mysterious characters projected momentarily onto moonlit fells.

Suddenly I was reduced to the confines of my house and garden, with no studio. Instead of lakes and mountains I anchored my project around a family of four old, mismatched wooden chairs. Chairs are very symbolic, grounding us in our environment to pause, think, connect. They became my miniature landscapes. I started documenting the pandemic using them as both canvas and inspiration. Their structure invited craft-based approaches and the thought that they were once used for social gatherings was evocative.

Gradually I themed the chairs: one for lockdown, one for movement, a third for our environment and a fourth for the human body. It was strangely liberating to respond with limited materials to such an unpredictable situation. The final outcomes of photography, sculpture, film and printmaking are like people in lockdown – separate on the surface, connected in the deep."

You can see Anne's final major project as a virtual exhibition, or follow her on Instagram.

CuratorSpace are currently featuring articles by artists, curators and organisations who want to share their experiences of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, whether that is artists using their practice as a way of exploring new boundaries of isolation, or as a way to connect more broadly with their communities. We are also interested in hearing from curators and organisations who are offering support to artists and audiences during this time.

Contact us at louise@curatorspace.com to share your story.
 

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