A Phantom Limb

These elements are extensions of an ongoing project, titled Phantoms of Form, which takes as its central point the idea of the “other” woman. The protagonist is a female figure, who is occupied with material investigation and is a composite of a number of historical female artists and designers. She is a ghost, a shadow, She is there but not present. The life and designs of these figures are used in collaboration with Eleanor’s own work, and the project oscillates between auto and fan fiction.

This chapter of the project, titled A Phantom Limb, focused on a series of letters written by Eleanor to the artist Barbara Hepworth, following a visit to Hepworth’s studio in October 2018. Preoccupied with the garden planted by Hepworth at the studio, the research for this show began by focusing on Hepworth’s use of the garden as an exterior work space. In tandem to this interest, Eleanor documented the demise of her own house plants slowly beginning to die. A second element in the research is a bronze cast made by Hepworth of her left hand. Eleanor’s curiosity here is in Hepworth creating such a figurative object, speculating if it is an act of somehow othering the self.