Carol Sowden Environmental Artist North Yorkshire, United Kingdom
My practice is driven by the need to be in direct contact with organic and elemental physicality. Through limitations of only using organic materials, I embrace work with an alchemic approach of manipulation to further understand materiality and the capacity for organic materials to mark make in their purest form.
Drawing on organic resources from the land and the spaces I inhabit, I work with elemental processes such as decay, growth, preservation, freezing, and heat to explore the beauty of ephemerality. My practice aims to draw attention to what is often overlooked to highlight the fragility of the world around us. The places I inhabit become starting points, as I appropriate my surroundings and the materials they offer.
As a process-led artist, my work evolves through each interaction with material and making, so finished outcomes can never be fully predicted. Often, there is no fixed end point; one process leads into another investigation, continuing indefinitely. The key is to recognize the beauty of unintentional elemental phenomena and harness these often ephemeral moments of significance.
Artwork
'Skeletal Leaf Drawing', Lining Paper, 2009
'Skeletal Leaf 2009', Skeletal Leaf, Hand Made Paper, 2009
'Ice Form in Detritus', Photograph Live Melt Installation Containing Water, Ice, Flowers,, 2022
'Fragility', Photography, 2019
'Dystopia', Photography, 2018
‘Light in the Dark’ , Photograph Live Melt Installation Containing Water, Ice, Flowers, Lady Bird, 2020
‘Contact II’ , Clay, Charcoal, Lining Paper, 2019
‘Contact I’ , Clay, Charcoal, Lining Paper, 2019
‘Pine Vessel’ , Ice, Pine Needles, 2021
‘Essence of Being I’ , Clay, Charcoal, Cyanotype, Plaster, Canvas Board, 2022
‘Essence of Being II’ , Clay, Charcoal, Cyanotype, Plaster, Canvas Board, 2022
‘Tide Marks’ , Plaster, Charcoal, 2023
'Iris Melt', Watercolour Paper, Iris Melt Water, 2026
September - November, Water Colour Paper, Organic DEtritus, 2023, Not For Sale
Projects and exhibitions
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Curators Choice31/01/2020 |
Leeds Arts Univeersity, Leeds | Details |
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'Response to 100 Objects That Changed The World'03/08/2019 — 24/08/2019 |
Chapel Walk Gallery, Sheffield | Details |
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'Moon Landing @ 50'03/08/2019 — 01/09/2019 |
Manor House, Ilkley | Details |
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'Surface' Loosen Art13/12/2018 — 20/03/2018 |
Rome, Italy | Details |
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'Ice'26/11/2018 — 23/12/2018 |
Horticap, Harrogate | Details |
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TCL 1st Year Anniversary Christmas Exhibition23/11/2018 — 28/02/2019 |
Coffee on the Crescent, Leeds | Details |
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TCL Art Collective Summer Exhibition09/06/2018 — 08/07/2018 |
Horticap, Harrogate | Details |
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Inspired15/04/2018 — 21/04/2018 Following on from previous years visit to Ireland a return to the landscape of the West Coast of Ireland to respond appropriating a different materiality of the landscape. |
KAVA, Kinvara, Ireland | Details |
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Elemental Harnessing26/01/2018 — 01/03/2018 https://www.leeds-art.ac.uk/news-events/events-exhibitions/carol-sowden-elemental-harnessing/ |
Leeds Arts University, Leeds | Details |
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TCL 1st Group Exhibition03/12/2017 — 23/12/2017 |
LS6, Leeds | Details |
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MA Final Show19/10/2017 Live installation of the melt of ice sculpture containing ephemeral material's encased in Perspex cubes with accompanying time lapse video (by Mel Dewey) |
Leeds Arts University, Leeds | Details |
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Beyond Landscape18/06/2017 Artist in residence at Kinvara Visual Arts |
KAVA, Kinvara, Ireland | Details |