Contemporary visual artist Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva has collaborated with Lakeside Arts and the University of Nottingham for years – visitors may remember the exquisite exhibition Making Beauty in the Djanogly Gallery, 2016 or the storytelling session on Wheee! 2019 around Euridyce Prevails, the art work of gilded inverted elm trees just outside DH Lawrence Pavilion. The artist gives us an insight into her work.
Have a look at her video below and read on to find out more about her work with the University of Nottingham.
EURYDICE PREVAILS, 2019
Standing outside Lakeside Arts' DH Lawrence Pavilion in the University Park, Eurydice Prevails is one of a series of inverted tree works Elpida has made over the last ten years. She has a continuing interest in that which is hidden, and has explored this through works including Ambush (New Forest, 2000) where she made a tunnel with glass ceilings for audiences to experience the forest from beneath the ground; (Fabrica, Brighton, 2015) considering the expérience de mort imminente and Making Beauty (Lakeside Arts, 2016), a project exploring regenerative medicine and the gut with art works crafted from the insides of animals.
Read more about the work on its dedicated page here.
MAKING BEAUTY, 2016
Making Beauty was a body of work made in collaboration with academics in medical departments of the universities of Nottingham, East Anglia and London, introducing highly regarded medical research activity to a wider public. Her work has been informed by their work on nutrition, healthy diet, our gut, and the development of highly specialised – invisible to the eye – manufactured parts providing solutions to medical problems. The sculptures reveal the fragility of our bodies and reflect the delicate nature of these medical components.
Read more about the exhibition and reviews here.
MORE ABOUT ELPIDA HADZI-VASILEVA
Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva is a contemporary visual artist working across varied media of sculpture, installation, video, sound, photography and architectural interventions. Her materials range from the extraordinary to the ordinary and the ephemeral or discarded to the highly precious; they have included organic materials, foodstuffs and precious metals, such as caul fat to gold leaf. Central to her practice is a response to the particularities of place; its history, locale, environment and communities. Elpida has worked in collaboration with many other professionals and organisations including the RSPB, and the Forestry Commission to The Vatican, and from Cathedral settings to National Trust properties as well as contemporary visual arts organisations such as MIMA and Djanogly Gallery, and understand the complexities of place and negotiations necessary to realise work in diverse often fragile settings. Hadzi-Vasileva is interested in how the exchange of knowledge might develop through collaborative working and in the contexts of landscape, heritage, science and community as offered by each location.
To read more about Elpida's work, visit her website or follow her on Instagram.