Robyn Woolston is a visual artist who works across installation, photography, moving image and print. From socially engaged practice to site-specific responses her work seeks to harvest, uncover and re-appropriate what is 'left behind' from manufacturing byproducts to historical narratives. She frequently works within archives and across sites of listed significance.
'Robyn often examines issues that others shy away from, from difficult emotions to consumer waste. In so doing, she seeks to make visible that which is forgotten, left behind and discarded.'
Ann Bukantas, Head of Fine Art. National Museums Liverpool
Previous installations have included 132,000 knives and forks, 7500 ice-cream containers, 45,000 carrier bags, a selection of trees from Ash to Silver Birch as well as a reproduction Las Vegas sign.
During 2012 she won the Liverpool Art Prize and was awarded a solo show in 2013 at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, during which she exhibited 3.6 tonnes of post-consumer waste prior to recycling.
Her work has featured within National Geographic Traveller, Psychologies Magazine, the New York Times Dot Earth Blog as well as on the front cover of the Green Party magazine: Green World (issue 79).
In 2014 she exhibited her photography in São Paulo, Brazil, whilst contributing as a panel member to the International Solid Waste World Congress.
After a successful National Trust Penrhyn Castle residency during 2016, 2017 saw her undertake the inaugural Artist in Residence commission with the Highlanders' Museum (Queen's Own Highlanders Collection) in Inverness.
Her most recent commission involves working with the World War One archive at The Wilson, Cheltenham, alongside engaging with the African Community Foundation / Lives of Colour, Change/Grow/Live and the local P3 Group in the run up to an exhibition in September 2018.
She has shown across the UK, Europe and Australia.
Previous clients have included:
Birmingham City Council
Bluecoat / Liverpool
British Motor Museum / Warwickshire
Curve Gallery / Australia
Deco Publique
Edge Hill University / Lancashire
Green Party
Grundy Art Gallery / Blackpool
Guys Hospital / London
Harrogate School of Art & Design
Highlanders' Museum (Queen's Own Highlanders Collection)
High Life Highland
HM Prison Service
Hull School of Art and Design / East Yorkshire
Intel
International Solid Waste Association / Vienna
ITV
Liverpool City Council
London Print Studio
Maerz Arts Association / Linz, Austria
Metal / Liverpool & Peterborough
Mitsubishi
National Geographic Traveller
National Trust
Plymouth College of Art
Psychologies Magazine
Queen's Own Highlanders Collection / The Highlanders Museum
Super Slow Way
Syson Gallery / Nottingham
Tenderpixel Gallery / London
The Cheltenham Trust
Walker Art Gallery / Liverpool
Williamson Art Gallery / Birkenhead