THE WINNERS OF THE 2021 GRIZEDALE RESIDENCY

Forestry England and the Royal Society of Sculptors announces the winner of the annual 2021 Grizedale Residency

Susan Stockwell FRSS and early-career artist Florian Houlker will be the latest artists joining the list of leading international artists who have been invited to work in Grizedale Forest. Susan and Florian will be residing and working in the forest this summer, producing work inspired by, and of, their surroundings.

Judges, President of The Royal Society of Sculptors, Clare Burnett, artist David Nash, art project manager, Nia Roberts and the arts development manager for North England at Forestry England, Hazel Stone said they were delighted by the diversity of applications and all the artists enthusiasm for the project.

They were selecting two artists who had responded to a ‘call for artists’ earlier this year; one ‘early year’s’ sculptor and one member of the Royal Society of Sculptors, to be based at Grizedale Forest for six weeks, 30 July – 11 September. During that time, they will be free to explore how creative and new ideas and innovative thinking can evolve without interruption.

Susan Stockwell FRSS and Florian Houlker join notable sculptors Richard Harris (the forest's first resident in 1977-78), David Nash (1978), Robert Keonig (1981-83), Andy Goldsworthy (1984, 1985 & 1990) and Sally Matthews (1988) as artists who have left permanent and temporary work or have added in some way to the creative legacy of Grizedale Forest.

Forestry England are committed to supporting creative enquiry in the natural forest and are pleased to see the relaunch of the Grizedale Residency which has been made possible through Grizedale Forest’s partnership with the Royal Society of Sculptors and generous funding by the Brian Mercer Trust. Together they are supporting artists and fostering experimentation and innovation in response to the natural environment.

Susan Stockwell FRSS is an established international artist working across sculpture, installation, collage and film. Her practice is concerned with examining histories and engaging with questions of social justice, cultural mapping and feminism. Her work employs the material culture of everyday products, such as toilet paper, recycled computer components, maps and money, which she transforms into compelling artworks. In seeking to reconnect an object’s past, its related history and materiality with contemporary issues, her practice underscores these materials urgent interconnection to collective memories, and ecological shortfalls.

Florian Houlker is a multidisciplinary artist from Preston and currently artist-in-residence at Artlab Contemporary Print Studios. They explore the post-industrial landscape through explorative investigations and search for narratives within it, often reclaiming objects from these environments to repurpose or change their narratives. They are interested in recording the surfaces of reclaimed objects and surfaces in the landscape, as there is an embedded visual history which comes from human traces and natural factors.

This award is generously supported by the Brian Mercer Trust