Yorkshire Artist Aphra O'Connor on Her New Art Trail
Whitby-based artist Aphra O'Connor has celebrated a solo show, an art trail and the launch of her new custom-built studio
Aphra graduated from Wimbledon College of Art in 2014 with a BA in Sculpture, and from the Royal College of Art with a masters degree in Ceramics and Glass in 2019. Following a recent diagnosis, she is now navigating neurodiversity through her ceramic sculpture creations. Aphra casts in plaster to create her sculptures and cuts, modifies and collages to create their unique shapes.
Aphra had originally planned to be a musician, but that path ended up leading her to art. ‘I remember asking my parents what I should do in life whilst decisions about universities were happening around me with my peers. My dad, who was already a successful musician, told me to follow his path, to go to art school and join a band,’ she recalls. ‘So I did, although with undiagnosed ADHD I completely forgot to join a band! In some ways art is a much easier pathway to choose over music – if you have any form of anxiety, you can put your work out into the world and stand at a distance whilst people observe it. Art has always been an important part of my life and ultimately I'm glad I forgot to join a band!’
She’s inspired by observations and collects objects to reuse in her sculptures, photography and drawings. ‘With my recent work I have been on a deep dive into my own thoughts, which has been a new experience for me,’ says Aphra. ‘Over the last 18 months I have been diagnosed with ADHD and autism and have started therapy, which are all things I didn’t think applied to me. This has led to a full re-evaluation of who I am, which is both exciting and terrifying, and it has been the first time I have responded to anything deeply personal in my work – there has always been that detachment in some way.’
Having previously exhibited her creations at Crescent Arts in Scarborough and Sunny Bank Mills in Farsley, Aphra’s solo show, which was recently on display at Redcar Palace, was titled ‘Out of my Mind’ and explored the relationship between mental health and creativity through ceramics, sculpture and 2D works. ‘The making process of this work was extremely cathartic as I felt the stresses and anxiety that ultimately come from working with clay (the explosions, the cracks and the breakages),’ she explains. ‘I used creativity to work through all the negative feelings; perhaps a creative catch 22 but it certainly felt like progress. The work explored the ideas of "cracks and fissures" and how creatives deal with failure.’
This exhibition featured a ‘moments’ series which explored how a feeling can be translated into a drawn design, and ‘brain noises’, a series of drawings and ceramic sculptures which looked at the deepest, abstract corners of Aphra’s brain.
Alongside her solo show Aphra also created an art trail for the North York Moors National Park, which is now installed permanently at the Danby site. The art trail features nine ceramic mosaics that explore moments she experienced whilst spending time at the site, and offers visitors a chance to reflect on their own experiences at each of the nine points as they follow the trail. Aphra’s ceramic mosaics accompany wooden stands created by Gibson's Cabinet Makers in Whitby and, at each point, a text summary offers further insight into the inspiration behind each design.
‘I worked on these massive projects in tandem, which fed into each other,’ she recalls. ‘The Moment art trail takes that idea of translating a feeling into a drawing, but specifically focused on the Danby site and the North York Moors. Each “moment” was left open ended, so visitors could personally respond to and then take away the idea of being in the moment. This trail is about slowing down and appreciating where you are right now.’
In what’s been a busy year for Aphra, she also opened her new custom-built studio in Sleights, offering visits by appointment at any time of the year, and she looks forward to welcoming more art-lovers into her creative space to learn more about what she makes, and how she makes it. ‘I always find it so exciting to see an artist's space and I want to share what I'm making with people that are new to my work and those that have visited already,’ she says.
Whilst she prepares for a new solo show at Danby’s Inspired by… gallery in October, Aphra’s plans for the future involve exploring even more of her creativity, and she’s looking forward to ’more introspection, more collaboration and more experimenting’.
