Grace Woodcock is a London-based artist whose work intersects biological and sci-fi influences to consider what it means to have an intelligent, sensing body. Her sculptures are formulated to give the viewer’s body something to map onto, to reflect back a feeling it knows, a memory of a sensation. By combining experimental upholstery techniques with CAD software, Grace makes installations, soft sculptures, wearables, and furniture.
Her most recent project looks at how organisms grow and evolve as they are pulled by changing gravitational and electromagnetic forces. This research has produced radial and vortex-like works which intend to simulate ‘biological quivering’: a fluidity that we can feel in our inner processes and see in the world.
Ghost of Itself is an installation of two freestanding sculptures which spiral outwards in opposite directions. They are similar but not mirror images. In both, one wave radiates outward from a coiled centre, with each spine reaching different limit points. These irregular rotations generate undulating forms which ripple in multiple directions. A nodal pushes up, distorting the tight membrane of each section and plots unwinding swirls through the segments.
The work takes its inspiration from the deep ocean, the abyss where until relatively recently it was thought that no life forms existed. In reality, it is full of life which has evolved to withstand extreme conditions. The organisms in these depths have even developed the ability to glow in the dark since there is no other light. When approached by a predator some of these creatures will shed off the outer layer of their skin leaving behind an illuminated ghostly replica of themselves in the hope that in the confusion they can escape.