About Me...

Andrea Wood combines photography, sculpture, and creates installations using unconventional materials, processes, and techniques. Her practice addresses and raises awareness of our current environmental crisis.

 

Her concerns surrounding mankind’s impact on the environment derive from current scientific research and prevailing environmental opinions. Scientists are unofficially calling the present epoch ‘The Anthropocene era’, meaning a new phase in humankind's and Earth's history, when natural forces and human forces become intertwined, causing irreversible damage to the climate and ecosystem.

 

Andrea’s work conveys an imagined future. By fusing both manmade and organic materials within sculptures, she interprets the damage caused to the ecosystems today as an almost unrecognisable, almost alien environment.

 

Her inspiration has developed from the coastline of her hometown of Teesside, known for its steel industry and its high level of pollution in the 1980s, creating smog over the area. Andrea has seen many changes to the environment around her, specifically the beaches of the Northeast. When the steel industry declined, the smog cleared from the air, the beaches became cleaner, and the rockpools thrived. Andrea began reacting to the landscape of the beach to create her art.

 

The work often relies on childhood memories of trips to the beach and rock pooling. She found them to be magical and wondrous places to explore. As an artist, she visits the coastline regularly with her children to record the wondrous world living in the ecosystem of the coastline. Creating anticipated scenarios resulting from irresponsible human environmental behaviour.

 

Andrea aims to raise awareness and depict dramatic changes due to rubbish, contaminated water, and historic dumping from the industrial era that endangers sea creatures; degraded plastic that mimics life and changes the environment into something alien.

 

Her photography, sculptural forms, and installations predict a worryingly negative future whilst positively recycling material into lasting artworks. Andrea has a knowledge of the effects due to her obtaining up-to-date data on the current environmental issues, by not only researching but also participating in local group litter picks, documenting and recording their findings, transforming data into visual artworks, and giving them context.

 

Materials collected are often used within her sculptures and installations. Therefore, making her practice sustainable, reducing her carbon footprint.  The rubbish collected, she takes home and prepares it to be used within her artwork, preserving the once beautiful coastline.

 

Her work confronts the harsh realities of humanity's actions and engagement with nature, highlighting our wasteful practices and scrutinizing the often controversial and complex relationship we have with plastic and the environment. She often applies symbolism to strengthen the concept and context of her work.  An example of this can be seen in her recent artwork ‘Wave of Plastic’ which goes beyond its physical form and represents many different concepts such as, motion, transformation, strength and power, it’s said to mirror the ebb and flow of emotions and experiences, allowing viewers to connect with her work on a personal level. 

She blurs the line between artist and viewer by engaging with the audience, involving them in the creative process, so they become participants in the event. Allowing for a more collaborative and inclusive experience. To break down the barriers between art and everyday life, encouraging people to engage with art in a more personal and meaningful way.