Artists and Sustainability Spotlight: Ashleigh Beattie

In what ways do you feel your work might relate to issues of climate change and sustainability, in the content of the work, its narrative, conceptually or theoretically? How might it speak to or challenge public discourse?

Without setting out to make work about climate change or sustainability I have found my practice relates to these issues in more than one way. Repurposing is a prominent aspect of my work and reusing materials and objects comes naturally to me. It is a way to save money and it is also something I learned from growing up in Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe throwing stuff away is almost unheard of. When something breaks it is given multiple chances to live again before it is resigned to an out-house and even then its parts are used for something else. Repurposing is essential, it is a way of life. 

In my practice I explore narratives of migration and displacement, which constantly bring me back to the issues of Climate change. Climate change is a big factor in global and even national level migration. The relationship we as human beings have to the land we live on has become more fractured and out of sync. And as these fractures increase so does movement of people. The ‘Resource Curse’ is a term I have come across since recently making work that is concerned with the extraction of minerals.  The term is used to describe resource rich countries that are mined extensively and yet have nothing to show for it. Many of these countries are basically facing modern day colonialism where the earth is stripped of its resources and communities are disparately affected. 

I hope that in some way my work would make us rethink issues we have become too familiar with like, migration and extraction. Maybe by making work about such weighted concepts, simple conversations might open up, like how we use the natural resources around us, or where they come from.

With regards to the materials, processes and techniques you use to produce your work, are there any practical decisions you make with regard to climate change and sustainability?

I always start with what is already around me, things like newspapers and tin cans always show up in my work.  As I make the work I think about really practical things like, how the work will be stored, transported and possibly remade. This sort of thinking helps me make decisions about how I gather the materials and how I transform them. For instance with the work, ‘Clay fruits’, 2024, I used dug up clay from my garden and have purposely not fired the clay so that if need-be it would go back to the earth when I am done with it. Gathering natural materials always comes with the tension of what I want to achieve versus what is best for the natural habitat around me. I find being sensitive to nature sometimes means the work is slow and the process drawn out. 

In terms of the techniques I use, I tend to work seasonally and mostly outdoors. I enjoy using natural elements like the sun for cyanotypes and rainwater to rinse them as well as the heat in my green house to air dry clay. Working like this has its limitations and I find I make more art in the spring and summer months than the winter months. 

In general, how do you feel galleries, art spaces, artworks and artists, might be able to contribute, what if any role do you feel they can play in a progressive conversation?

Art and spaces for art, create opportunities for conversation. The question is, who are the people having these conversations? Maybe art institutions could work harder at inviting more people from different backgrounds into these conversations and not just artists and art lovers. Personally for me, I’d love to see my Mancunian born and bred neighbours as well as migrant friends, joining in the conversations and feeling welcome in these spaces. The conversation has to spread further than the gallery walls and into everyday life.

Are there any tips or advice, anything you have learnt you might want to share with other artists or our audiences?

I guess, through Covid and life experiences, I have found that as an artist I make, because I have been created to make. We don’t always make work that will be seen, but we keep making anyway, it is part of our being. The gallery is not our highest calling.

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• Ashleigh Beattie, Maize 1 cyanotype, 2024. Image courtesy of the artist.

From left to right, top to bottom:

• Ashleigh Beattie, Maize 3 Cyanotype, 2024. Image courtesy of the artist.
• Ashleigh Beattie, Maize 2 cyanotype, 2024. Image courtesy of the artist.
• Ashleigh Beattie, Clay Fruits, 2024. Image courtesy of the artist.