Ellie Edwards
They/She
Environmental artist using organic material to create new conceptual works conveying ideas of co-authorship, regeneration and ephemerality. The work explores the cyclical seasonal progression of nature.
They/She
Nature is sourced as material for the artwork; Natural materials such as mushrooms, plants, flowers, shells, etc. The manipulation and restriction of these natural materials are a central theme within my practice, alongside an overarching investigation of the ways and limits of preserving nature, implemented through limiting natural processes like decay and regeneration. Organic objects within my work are circumscribed from naturally decomposing and instead are suspended in time to document seasonal progression.
At the forefront of the art practice is the ongoing paper collection (Earth Calendar, 2025-26); One natural object for each paper segment, made during that specific month from the pulp of recycled paper and of the particular natural object. This collection is displayed chronologically – in seasonal order – to emphasise the vast range of material offered up through nature in the different months. Cyclical and ephemeral aspects of time are conveyed within the work and the installation is to be read as a calendar, or as an artist diary, with the purpose of recording the artist in a specific place at a specific time. The work is displayed as artefact and specimen, as well as an artwork. With the addition of the archive, the work is transformed into an informative and researched work of art which is able to teach its audience.
Randomly generated co-ordinates on maps were used to take artistic influence out of the process of collection, so that objects could be selected without bias.
Recycled paper is blended with the singular natural object. The pulp is then moulded into 12cm x 12cm squares by hand and left to dry over the course of a week. Once dried they are labelled, informing the sequence, date, organic object and co-ordinate where the natural object was found in nature.
The use of nature and natural process within the artist’s work disturbs the artistic authorship between themselves and nature. Once the work is created, it endures change through external force such as evaporation. This creates unpredictable change within the work as the pigment, size and texture of the work is altered. Thus, the relationship between artist and nature is recognised as a co-authorship, an artist collective.
The artwork encourages its audience to rethink the bridge between life and death, between regeneration and degeneration. The work exists in a space between living and dead material; The papers are not living, but they are also unable to naturally decay.
