Rosie Sherwood
About the researcher
Rosie Sherwood is an interdisciplinary artist whose practise focuses on the environment. Operating at the axis of fine art and the earth crisis, Sherwood’s work seeks to contribute to reshaping our personal and societal relationships with nature.
Sherwood has exhibited widely, and her work can be found in national and international collections. She has taught and been published on a range of subjects, received funding from numerous bodies, and was a finalist in the National Sculpture Prize (2018) and Aesthetica Prize (2023). As the UK’s first Blue Carbon Artist in Residence (2022), Sherwood The Seagrass Walk at the National Marine Aquarium. In 2023 she exhibited her project Zennor Wildfire with the National Trust, a photographic examination of the increasing threat of wildfires in the UK.
In October 2024 Sherwood began a practice-based PhD at Falmouth University. Her project, the Museum of Mass Extinction, takes an interdisciplinary approach to examining and expressing a mass extinction event which has not yet occurred.
Research interests
- Earth Crisis
- Mass Extinction
- Rewilding
- Blue Carbon
- Ecology
- Conservation
- The Anthropocene
- Ecological Grief
- Sci-Arts
- Environmental Art
- The Right to Roam
- Ecological Art Practice
- Ecological Photographic Practice
- Ecological Craft
- Fibre Art
- Foraging
PhD abstract
Thesis title
The Museum of Mass Extinction: How might art communicate the 6th mass extinction and Eremocene (Age of Loneliness)?
Abstract
The world is on the brink of a 6th mass extinction, the core contributing factor of which is humanities’ broken relationship with the more-than-human. Anthropocentrism has been used to justify destruction to the point of extinction. At this fragile and potent moment, the artist has a significant role to play. Situated within the environmental arts, the Museum of Mass Extinction will centre a mass extinction event which has not yet occurred, presenting a unique dialogue with the potential totality of this loss.
Aims
- To respond creatively and critically to the 6th mass extinction, resulting an original body of work centring mass extinction.
- To foster a deeper understanding of the more-than-human worlds’ right to survive.
Objectives
- Engage in environmental research from a broad spectrum of disciplines.
- Undertake practice-based research.
- Develop a visual language of absence and loss.
- Evolve an environmentally sustainable art practice.
Research contexts
My research will take a holistic, interdisciplinary approach, ensuring my outcomes are sensitive to the complexities of the subject. I will incorporate the distinct but interconnected fields of environmental art and craft, environmental studies, and museology. My primary theoretical framework of extinction studies will be supported by the evolving field of more-than-human rights and scholarship drawn from my interdisciplinary contexts.
Methodology
My practice-based research weaves together the complimentary but distinct processes of research and practice, as defined by Linda Candy and Ernest Edmond. This research cycle ensures every element of my work feeds into and drives the direction of the other.
Qualifications
|
Year |
Qualification |
Awarding body |
|---|---|---|
|
2012-2013 |
M.A. Visual Arts: Books Arts |
University of the Arts London, Camberwell College of Art |
|
2007-2010 |
B.A. (Honours) Photography |
University for the Creative Arts Farnham |
|
2005-2006
|
Foundation Diploma in Art and Design |
University of the Arts London, Camberwell College of Art |
Honours and awards
|
Year |
Description |
|---|---|
|
2023 |
Finalist, Aesthetica Art Prize |
|
2018 |
Finalist for the National Sculpture Prize |
Grants and awards
|
Year |
Description |
Awarding body |
|---|---|---|
|
2023 |
Funding for photographic exhibition Zennor Wildfire, hosted with the National Trust |
FEAST |
|
2021/2022 |
Blue Carbon Artist in Residence, University of Plymouth and the National Marine Aquarium |
Natural Environment Research Council |
|
2021/2022 |
Time Space Money fund |
a-n The Artist Information Company |
|
2020 |
|
Gane Trust |
|
2020 |
|
Arts Council COVID-19 Emergency Grant |
|
2019 |
Artist in Residence |
University of Plymouth, Marine Institute |
|
2019 |
|
Eaton Fund |
Contributions
Selected Conference, Talks, and Podcasts
- The Seagrass Walk, Centre for Material Thinking, Aberystwyth University, May 2023
- The Seagrass Walk, An Installation, The Saltwater Songlines, Podcast, Sept 2022
- Rosie Sherwood and The Climate Change Superhero, The Sustainiacs, Podcast, Aug 2022
- Blue Carbon through Ocean Art, Speak up for the Blue, Podcast, Jan 2022
- An Ever Moving Now, Art Work Exeter, Online talk and Podcast, Sept 2020
- Walking Towards Rewilding, Walkings New Movements, Plymouth University, Nov 2019
- An Ever Moving Now, Land/Water Collective, Plymouth Univeristy, October 2019
- Can Art Speak of Rewilding, Environmental Arts Practice Research Conference, Plymouth University, April 2019
Selected Publications
- Future Now, Aesthetica Art Prize 2023
- The Seagrass Walk, aetla Magazine Vol.3, 2022
- Home Scar, Elsewhere Journal, 2021
Professional engagements
Selected Exhibition
- Planet Ocean, The Box Plymouth, Spring/Summer 2024
- The Zennor Wildfire, National Trust: Botallack Count House & St Ives Society of Artists, Autumn 2023
- Aesthetica Art Prize 2023 Group Show, York Art Gallery, March-June 2023
- The Seagrass Walk, National Marine Aquarium, July 2022-2024
- The Seagrass Walk Satellite Exhibition, Plymouth Community Climate Centre, July-Nov 2022
- An Ever Moving Now, The Marine Station, Plymouth, June 2019
Public Art
- Akin, Plymouth University, Permanent installation, 2022 – onwards
Artist Residencies and Fellowships
- Blue Carbon Artist in Residence, October 2021-Oct 2022
- Foundry Fellow, Chelsea College of Art, 2020 (cancelled due to COVID-19)
- Artist in Residence, Marine Institute, Plymouth University- January 2018 - June 2019