(1959 - )
Annie O'Donnell's gestural sculptural practice researches place and identity, with a focus on her home area, Teesside, in the North East of England- often under-represented in art research. She uses specific materials, colours and processes as hyperlocal metaphors for belonging and displacement. Drawing on her previous spatial experiences as a dancer, she uses the everyday plastic materials originally developed in her hometown to assemble sculpture that speaks of belonging, attachment, mobility and displacement. O'Donnell questions what it means to be 'of' a place often viewed as toxic, and how this knowledge can be used to unfold other places. Her current work examines how specific materials and objects can stand as playful tropes for filiation/affiliation, myth/anecdote and people/place. O'Donnell trained at CCAD (Teesside University), at Newcastle University (MFA and PhD funded by the AHRC) and is represented by Platform A Gallery, Middlesbrough.
