Annie Rapstoff
Didcot, Oxfordshire
I am an artist, maker and researcher interested in responding to place, context and species.
I am a interdisciplinary artist interested in responding to place, context and species. My concerns include an interest in exploring relationships with other beings in the widest sense of the word, underpinning the work is an interest in the human condition and our relationship with the other. This includes animals, plants and trees. My work is driven by an interest in interconnection, ecological intelligence and empathy for others. In addition, I am influenced by animism and what is heard, felt, and experienced through the often unnoticed.
My practice includes performance, text, stitch, video, and whatever is appropriate in conceiving the work. I am involved in participatory, collaborative, process-based or ephemeral art, taking the form of instructions, events, performance for the camera, in situ, gestures, interventions, video and writing/language.
During the lock down, I began becoming interested in birds and spent time observing and reading about them. Parallel to this I was reading books on early pandemics such as the plague and the role of the Plague Doctor. I began to make masks, extending them into beaks; researching the possibilities of self-transformation and the interplay and impact on nature of human intervention. My recent research on birds focuses in particular on postures, behavior and myths concerning Magpies, Crows, The Albatross and The Cuckoo. This research has evolved to become my most recent body of work.
I studied Critical Fine Art at Central St Martins School of Art in London and went on to complete a Masters in Fine Art at Middlesex University. I have many years of experience of teaching, working with groups, including arts and non-arts based participants/audiences. In addition, I have also developed a mentoring and coaching practice, which has included working with artists across art forms and life experiences.
My work has been shown worked internationally and I have been in receipt of several Arts Council England grants for projects and curatorial events in The UK.
EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
1994 – 1997 BA Central St Martin’s School of Art and Design
1998 - 2000 MA fine art, Middlesex University, London
2021 2 artists books and deep listening workshops
EXHIBITIONS/COLLABORATIONS/PROJECTS
2018 Only the Sunny Hours, a photographic project, working with Brownie cameras, Open Hand Open Space, Reading
2018 Continuum a film shown at Liquidscapes, Dartington, Art and Earth Conference. Performance
2020 Visiting Bird, a performance intervention at Stephens House and Gardens Finchley, Funded by The Arts Council Funded, curated by Rebekah Dean.
2021 - 2023 An Aqueous Collaboration, a collaborative online contemplation of water and its possibilities, a collaboration with Philip Lee, currently on Instagram @annnierapstoff @philiplee, shown at Bicester Festival Oxfordshire and Walthamstow International Film Fesitval and Microacts Festival
2021, Home Books, a series of books works curated by CouCOU Arts, Oxfordshire
2021 Bird by Bird, three A1 photographic images embodying a bird,
At Unprecedented, an exhibition at OVADA Gallery, Oxford
2021 Air Radio, a collaborative radio space created, (COP26), Bird by Bird 2, a sonic performative voicework in two parts
2023 Trapped Bird, a performance at Frome Festival
2023 In The Likeness of Birds an exhibition of work concerning birds at The North Wall Oxfordshire
RESIDENCIES AND TALKS
2014 Residency concerning water research in The Gower Peninsula
2014 Residency in Slovakia
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#apps/rekha+residency/n100/1480988074ad20aa?projector=1
2018 Residency in Manorbier Wales of 10 days, exploring red sandstone
2022 Residency in Zagori, Northern Greece, researching themes concerning ecological intelligence
EMPLOYMENT, COMMUNITY/PARTICIPATORY AND PUBLIC ARTS PRACTICE
2009 Coach working with artists and creatives – Turning Point Creative Coaching freelance
CATALOGUES
2013 Do You Remember It – Or Weren’t You There?’ London Gallery West, catalogue
2019 Liquidscapes, catalogue edited by Richard Povall
MEMBERSHIP
2020 - current associate artist OVADA, Oxford
2021 - member of OIKA Network, a network of artists, creatives, scientists exploring ecological intelligence
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