Kate Sully South Yorkshire, United Kingdom

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I am a mixed media artist often working large scale and with a range of materials and techniques and currently exploring ideas around the Art of Disconnection. I am embarking on a residency at Fremantle Arts centre, Western Australia from January - March 2020 to develop these ideas and creative new work in a different cultural space.

Over the last few years my main focus has been exploring ideas around bioengineering and cutting edge science in collaboration with researchers at the University of Sheffield. This collaboration allowed me access to research that inspired new work that was a conduit between science and art for public consumption. My artistic achievements to date are the Revelation project which showcased my partnership with the University and I exhibited across Sheffield to involve the public in my work. This project was funded through the Arts council and allowed me to develop a large collection of bold and exciting pieces which extended my practice. I was commissioned through the Festival of the mind, partnering art and science to create further work around these themes. My work has been used by the university at conferences and events to demonstrate how art can be used to inspire people and engage them in both disciplines. Through that research and my socially engaged practice working with grass roots community I have become increasingly fascinated by the idea that we as a society have become disconnected to our own creativity and balancing my own practice with work commitments has allowed me to be on that precipice at this point in my career. Recently I have started exploring ideas around whether through regenerative medicine /research it is possible to grow creativity in brain tissues and how people have become disconnected creatively and what that looks and feels like to them. I feel the need to reassess my work in so many ways and want to explore this in much more depth. I became completely freelance two years ago and since then my own work has suffered through my socially engaged practice is disconnected to my own ideas and focus and now is the time to address this position.