George Moody is the current recipient of the Yorkshire Graduate Award, a unique residency opportunity for a recent graduate from a Yorkshire-based university. Residencies have always been at the heart of YSP, offering opportunities for early career and emerging artists to reflect and move forward with their practice.
Moody recently graduated from the University of Leeds with an MA in Performance Design. They have a multi-disciplinary practice that spans bio art, sculpture, photography, installation and digital technologies. They are inspired by the ideas of Queer Ecology (the combination of Queer theory and Eco-criticism), to tune into the unique rhythms of nature.
At YSP they hope to work in the Park’s natural landscape to develop sustainable materials. Moody will collect and combine water samples from the lake with decomposable bioplastics made from algae to produce a series of seasonal ‘bio paintings’, experimenting with natural and artificial light forms to activate these works. They hope to learn about the lifespan of bioplastics and how the natural environment will impact the material’s growth, culminating in a public event at the end of their residency.
My work is always material-led, asking what I can do to fall in step with the traces of a slippery ‘nature’ that we encounter unknowingly on an everyday basis. Queer notions of intimacy and care always inform how I engage with natural matter and unstitching their simplistic narratives.
