Ellie Hayward graduated with a BA in Fine Art from the Slade in 2020. Her practice focuses on sculpture and print. Her etching, insideout was selected as one of the inaugural UCL East Provost Art Prize winners in 2020.

Practice

“Whilst studying at the Slade I developed my practice which focuses on print and sculpture. Through both mediums I explore ideas around space, particularly liminal spaces. The architectural language of spaces, such as thresholds and boundaries create places of transition in our everyday lives. The way we encounter different environments is never static and often architectural features direct and influence our behaviour/movement.

When making sculpture my approach is less about creating objects and more about creating an experience where the sculptures play a role in a temporary altered environment. The forms echo familiar architectural features both inside and out.

Over time there has been a shift in my practice with the prints becoming more sculptural and the sculptures more like drawings. It is this confused relationship and continual overlap between the two processes which interests me and has led me to explore the space between 2D and 3D."

Artwork

"The etching selected for the Provost Prize is called insideout. It references familiar architectural forms and how we transition between them. It was the first print where I combined two separate printing techniques: aquatint and photo-etching. The work includes photo-etchings of arches from previous sculptures. Whilst the printing process inevitably flattened the arches, they still retained a sculptural quality, continuing the dialogue between the 3D and 2D elements of my practice. As with many of my prints, the various forms are anchored by the floor, but aside from that, the space/setting that the objects occupy is left to the viewer to interpret.”

Ellie Hayward

website: www.elliehayward.co.uk