3.7a Rosalind Lowry, 'Land Art: Celebrating our Boglands'

Prompted by Nature

Hello and welcome to series three, episode seven of the podcast. I’m so happy to introduce to you today’s guest, the incredibly talented land artist, Rosalind Lowry.

Rosalind Lowry is an award winning artist born in Northern Ireland who attended Chelsea College of Art and Central St. Martins before returning to her native land to set up her studio. Her practice is based on environmental themes and concerns, and using art as an intervention. She works in sculpture, land art and installations. Rosalind has completed a number of residencies across the world, from Rathlin Island to a North Vietnam residency awarded by the Arts Council which focused on natural dyes, another in Quebec dedicated to derelict old buildings, and a recent residency in 2019 for the State Government of Alaska in the national parks. Rosalind lived and worked alone in a remote area of the Alaskan wilderness creating a land art trail to attract people into the state parks. In 2018 Rosalind was one of 100 female artists across the UK chosen to create an artwork for the Artichoke Trust UK to celebrate 100 years of women having the vote. In early 2020, just before lockdown, Rosalind installed a commission of a large environmental sculpture in Belfast Cathedral called The Ark created from fallen branches of local native trees. For the past 2 years Rosalind has been Artist in Residence on the boglands of County Tyrone in Ireland for the Heritage Lottery and Lough Neagh Landscape Partnership, creating a series of installations across the bogs with a view to encouraging preservation of the land and highlighting the endangered animal and plant life on the boglands.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Rosalind’s work and how she came to be a Land Artist
• Her and art work as funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund to raise the profile of and people engagement with the peat and bogland of Northern Ireland as well as at the Belfast Cathedral
• Her eventful time creating in the wilds of Alaska
• Her artistic process from commission to finished piece
• The ecological and health benefits of peat and bogland and why it needs to be protected
• Creating art through championing of the ‘under dog’
• The space in which she has felt most inspired
• The need for her to release attachment from her work
• How she stays creative, her hope for the future and what she would like to pass on

Just one thing to note is that the reception was a bit touch-and-go at times but hopefully that doesn’t come through too much - it’s just a note for a couple of patches where Rosalind goes a bit fuzzy.

You can find Rosalind stunning work over on her website: www.rosalindlowryartist.com and on Instagram @rosalindlowry

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