Four artists have been shortlisted for Art in the Elements, the £10,000 fine art category of this year’s cross-discipline Arts Foundation awards. They are: Alex Hartley, Amy Sharrocks, Paul Chaney and London Fieldworks.
Each year, the awards focus on a number of different areas of practice, with £78,000 on offer this year across six categories. The awards are to be used to pay for living and working expenses, allowing artists breathing space to further their practice.
For 2015, the fine art category is highlighting artists who make objects, interventions and installations in the elements, as part of a three-year focus on art made for the outdoors.
Alex Hartley’s 2012 project Nowhereisland saw him create a new nation state with a citizenship of over 23,000 people from a small archipelagic island. The island was towed, by boat, from the Arctic Ocean to the south west coast of England.
Amy Sharrocks‘ practice also has an ocean-going element. Her 2014 Museums at Night project with Swansea Museum invited people to share a ‘group fall’ into the sea at Swansea Bay. She is currently working on a project to enable 100 participants to ‘Swim the Thames’ at Tower Bridge.
Paul Chaney has lived self-sufficiently for five years as part of his ongoing investigation into how humans and nature interact, while London Fieldworks is the collaborative practice of artists Bruce Gilchrist and Jo Joelson. The pair’s work typically engages with the idea of ecology as a relationship between social, natural, and technological factors.
The shortlist was selected by Chris Drury, artist; Helen Pheby, senior curator, Yorkshire Sculpture Park; and Dr Veronica Sekules, head of education and research, Sainsbury Centre For Visual Arts. The award was initiated by Arts Foundation trustees Antony Gormley and Jan Dalley.
Winners across all categories will be announced at an awards ceremony in London on Thursday 29 January.
