Shelagh Wakely: It is so green outside it is difficult to leave the window

This virtual exhibition showcases Shelagh WAKELY’s acute exploration of the natural world, her obsession with organic materials and fauna, as well as her interest in metamorphosis and transformation.

 

Wakely spent much of her youth in Kenya, surrounded by ecologists and natural scientists, and developed a particular fascination with natural forms. 

 

Using organic materials inclined to weathering and deterioration, her work, always characterised by a gentle touch, traces the ever-changing behaviour of nature and evokes a sense of temporality and movement. 

Wakely was part of the alchemy of the British Sculpture Movement of the 1980s, with fellow artists Richard DEACON, Barry FLANAGAN, Shirazeh HOUSHIARY and Anish KAPOOR, amongst others. 

 

Born in a small village in England in 1932, Wakely began her training as a research agronomist before turning to the arts to study painting and screen-printing at the Chelsea College of Art from 1958 to 1962. Working until her death in 2011, Wakely's career spanned nearly four decades and comprised an impressive body of work that included sculpture, installation, drawings, prints and video. Despite the diversity of her work, her oeuvre circled around a cluster of themes relating to fragility, time, aging and decay, all united by her singular interest in 'the surface' – as a shield, a barrier, a sign, a veneer.