Latest Shape collaboration:  National Disability Arts Collection and Archive (NDACA) commissioned artist & featured artist at Tate Exchange 2018 - Ghosts in the Machine

Artist Statement: Poppy Nash is an artist and designer based between Margate, London and Glasgow. She studied Communications Design at the Glasgow School of Art and undertook in a year’s Art Foundation at Falmouth College. She believes strongly that art and design should be made accessible to everybody.

Poppy's work incorporates her knowledge of textile design and printmaking and uses a traditional technique: low–fi to express her artistic ideas. Her ‘Facing the Fear’ commissioned pieces for NDACA which is inspired by the Japanese propaganda kimonos and the clothing of women in World War Two. Her influence also comes from artist Yayoi Kusama and her idea of using repetition to control fear sowed the seed of the idea of the repeated number design of the fabric.  On this, Poppy says: 'By imprinting the same concepts onto the interior settings I am symbolically showing the gravity of the invasive nature of my own Diabetes and how connected and inseparable we are.  The photographs show the interaction between the person and their environment and the resulting internal pandemonium.'

I love great British design and things that are made by hand.  The satisfaction and joy that comes from making things by hand is immense and we are now seeing a rebirth of these skills as a means of promoting mental wellbeing.  Craftsmanship is important to me - if you make art I feel that it should be made well and you should 'care'.

I am interested in how art, design and everyday objects can be used as a tool to discuss social issues. I enjoy discussing and sharing ideas in order to progress the projects I am working on but also my views in the process.

Watch Poppy discuss her work in more detail with Shape CEO David Hevey for our NDACA project:

Check out Poppy's website     See all the artists we work with

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Banner Image: '127 Tripping', photography by Melanie Hyams. A person, dressed in a red and orange patterned jacket and hat stands side on. It's the same colour and pattern as the background.