While working in my temporary dark space I felt the need to draw, to get my hands dirty from the ash dust and charcoal of a recent garden fire and express something transient of the hidden place of Well House as I looked at the footage I was projecting. These pieces emerged and are resting in the shed.

The unfinished research project I had begun during my ArtLab Fellowship at UCLan was waiting for my return. A first edition of one of the solar plate etching prints had been completed, but remains flattened and trapped in the press.  The second film I had shot and developed last year was also sealed, the footage unseen until I was able to project it for the first time in my temporary dark space, the shed, during the Coronavirus lockdown. The texts I had written - Mother's Breath and Body and Witness - were performed during a first collaborative site visit in August last year, more of which will emerge from this research, but extracts from them seem to have surfaced while I contemplate the film stills.

The historical narrative of the local site I’m working on connects the geology of the land with the presence of absence – a distinct sense of what has gone before and what remains; a recurring theme in my pursuit of heterotopian emplacements sometimes apparent in the ruined landscape.  A continued presence in the studios has enabled further practice research using less familiar print mediums such a stone lithography.  I am indebted to the skill and patience of the talented artist printmakers at ArtLab Contemporary Studios as I learn to navigate new techniques and equipment. 

Space and time to think and feel my way back into experimental screen printing in the highly motivational environment at ArtLab Contemporary Print Studios at UCLan in Preston. 

I am delighted to have achieved my MA in Fine Art Site & Archive Interventions following my two years of postgraduate research study at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston.  In addition I am thrilled to have been awarded the ArtLab Fellowship 2018 by ArtLab Contemporary Print Studios in Preston so that I can continue to develop my practice in this very dynamic print environment.
The Preview of our MA Fine Art Degree Show took place on 6 September 2018 and was - it has to be said, a resounding success!  A huge thank you to all who made it possible.  The exhibition continues until 14 Sept 2018.

I would be delighted if you could attend the Preview of our MA Fine Art Degree Show at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston on Thursday 6 September 5-9pm.  My final MA Fine Art research project, Treading Lightly is a means of negotiating time and space, of navigating loss and of performing what remains of the complex landscape of Rivington Terraced Gardens, a local heritage site on the outskirts of Bolton. 
The exhibition continues 7-14 September 2018 | 10-5 Monday-Friday

Preview Saturday 12 May 2018 1-3pm, includes an artist’s talk at 1.30pm
The Gallery St George’s House, 2 St. George's Road, Bolton BL1 2DD. 
City like me is supported by Castlefield gallery's New Art Spaces, in creative partnership with neo:artists
A solo exhibition of new artworks by Steph Shipley as she uncovers the secrets of Rivington Terraced Gardens on the outskirts of Bolton
The once luxurious country retreat of Lord Leverhulme, designed and realised by him in the early 1900s and what now remains of its fascinating past will hold special memories for many visitors.  For the final major research project of my MA in Fine Art Site & Archive Interventions at the University of Central Lancashire, I am responding to what I have found there, my research into local archives and the many hours spent in the gardens during the last 12 months. 
Places that exude a sense of past, a public fascia and private interior; where a gap or an interval might pervade their obsolescence or revival, are a frequent source of curiosity.  Temporary sites and spaces that vanish as swiftly as they appear hold the same allure as those that accumulate time and those that forbid or restrict access or withhold clear answers in terms of their purpose or history.  Through film, projection, photography and printmaking City like me expresses notions of loss, transience and nostalgia within these sites of heterotopia or otherness. 

The light was lovely today, first chance to see this beautifully curated exhibition and so pleased to be one of the six artists who use photography in their work.  Mine is usually a starting point, sometimes source and outcome, but invariably through some process of not knowing I'm able to find a different way in, to navigate the space and embody the image with some sense of having been there - #justaroundthecorner - and far, far, away.

Delighted to be part of this exhibition at PS Mirabel when my work Just around the corner will be on display for the first time in the UK.  Temporary sites and spaces that vanish as swiftly as they appear, such as the circus and fairground, hold the same allure as those that accumulate time and those that forbid or restrict access or withhold clear answers in terms of their purpose or history.  These are sites of heterotopia or otherness. 
Exhibition continues until 13 May 2018 - open Saturdays 11am-5pm.

Thank you to all who came from near and far to PR1 Gallery at UCLan in Preston this week.  We had an amazing response to our interim outcomes from the MA Fine Art Site & Archive and Studio Practice pathways.  On we go!

Excited to be exhibiting with my colleagues on the MA Fine Art Site & Archive and Studio Practice Pathways at the University of Central Lancashire. Preview 15 February 2018 5-8pm continues weekdays 11-5pm until 22 February 2018.

A new experimental work relating to my MA Fine Art major final project (UCLan, Preston) devised and filmed as part of my residency at New Art Spaces Bolton - neo:artists in creative partnership with Castlefield Gallery.

It was a privilege and a pleasure to be invited to return to the University to given students an insight into how my BA Fine Art Degree here informed my thinking and making and how it continues to drive my creative research and practice.

10.30 - over the meadow, reedy grass, whispering, back lit, flighty; the rose garden, walled and rocky, a space to linger, a space to feel, a space to remember.
Extract from my performance with Geraldine Hudson at Studio 44 / ABF gallery, Stockholm on 11 November 2017.
My film Just around the corner, installation of Polaroid photographs on Dibond and tracing paper and the performance of Shifting Ground were the outcome of our six month collaboration which continues.

Our joint statement illuminates the process:
The theoretical discourse and mapping strategies that the two artists have pursued during their collaboration has spilled over into email exchange, online conversations and a simultaneous walk – Steph in Bolton and Geraldine in Stockholm on the same day in August 2017.  Crossing time zones, seasons and space but synchronising the physical reality of walking to explore sites of common heterotopia within their own town and city has opened a new dialogue and creative process to their practice that would not have happened on an individual basis.
The artistic outcomes are clearly just the start of an approach that brings an exciting and fluid dynamic to a sharing of ideas and critical reflection on the mutability of place.

My new project art space #Downtown is supported by Castlefield Gallery’s New Art Spaces, in creative partnership with neo:artists.  Experimental projections are in progress developing works from recent Super 8 footage as source for my collaborative piece 'just around the corner' for the Corduroy exchange project between neo:artists in Bolton and studio44 in Stockholm.   More details here. 

Castlefield Gallery’s New Art Spaces (NAS) is an initiative to create dynamic project spaces for artists, artist collectives and artist development agencies. Making use of temporary vacant retail, office and light industrial units, NAS provides opportunities for emerging creatives to incubate their practices, produce work and showcase new art to local communities. Currently CG runs New Art Spaces in Bolton, Leigh, Rochdale, and Manchester City Centre.