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Holly Slingsby

Swansea
Through performance, video and painting I reimagine mythologies of mysticism, fertility and grief. My visual language reflects my fascination with iconography, exploring how ancient images persist in contemporary life.
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I am a visual artist based in Swansea, Wales. Through performance, video, costume and painting I seek to give visible form to unseen and overlooked phenomena. These range from belief in invisible saints and deities to the experience of childlessness - and sometimes the combination of both.

I am fascinated with mysticism, scared spaces and ceremonies. I often work site-responsively, at locations including churches, gardens and ancient ruins. My video practice allows me to transport viewers to these spaces and to emphasise particular qualities of the actions I perform in them. My visual language reflects a fascination with iconography, drawing on biblical imagery, mythologies, and contemporary culture, with a particular emphasis on representations of women and the implications of those for society and self-image. 

Much of my work explores my lived experience of infertility, creating a visual language for this through an eclectic combination of art historical imagery, medical material and ritualistic embodied action. I have recently examined parallels between these experiences and other forms of loss, such as iconoclasm and ecological breakdown. In the aftermath of grief, I am interested in artmaking as a conduit for healing and transformation.

 

Multiplying Marys

Her Template

Felled, yet unfurling

Earth Rite

Holding Shards

Messenger's Lament

An Enclosed Garden

Is there anyone among you

A Song Unheard

HEAP

Approaching Viriditas (Epilogue), 2019

Approaching Viriditas (Act III)

Featured in

Curated

Mourning

By Holly Slingsby
Curated

Highlights: 20 - 26 January, 2025

By Axis
Curated

Highlights: 1 - 7 December, 2025

By Axis

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