Ellie Shipman
Visual artist
eleanorshipman.com / ellie@ellieshipman.com / IG @ellieshipman
Ellie Shipman [she/her] is a visual and participatory artist whose practice is concerned with concurrent states of being and the process of drawing out shared commonality between them: hope and fear; isolation and togetherness; the domestic and the public; grief and joy.
The liminal space where these states rebuff, align and overlap is explored, shared and reflected on through multimedia artworks using found objects, textiles, drawing, audio and installation. Ellie is interested in what it is to be a woman; the experience of birth and new motherhood as well as notions of community; sustainability and anticipatory mourning for climate collapse.
Works are often site specific, participatory or interactive – including people in research, process and product. Ellie regularly collaborates with researchers, scientists and fellow creatives as well as the general public and a diverse range of community groups.
Projects have included inviting the public to share birth experiences through interactive installation (How was the birth? 2023); visualising deaths from air pollution in Vietnam (60,000 Last Breaths, 2019); to installing a permanent exhibit of 24 spin-able hourglasses exploring the sustainability of sand at We the Curious (24 Hours of Sand, 2021).
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Biography
Ellie Shipman is a visual artist and illustrator living and working in Bristol, based in a studio at St Anne’s House.
Ellie studied BA Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art (2008 – 11) and deepened her research into climate resilience and participatory art through undertaking a MSc Sustainable Development in Practice at UWE (2015 – 16). Ellie spent a year living and working in Vietnam in 2019, undertaking residencies with Fashion Revolution Vietnam and Undecided Productions alongside self led projects.
Ellie was awarded Arts Council England’s ‘Developing Your Creative Practice’ (DYCP) funding in December 2022 to pursue new avenues in her creative practice and is currently working on this year-long programme of mentoring, residencies and creative development. Mentors include Sonia Boyce, Emma Smith and Helen Knowles / The Birth Rites Collection. Residencies include The Hide Artist Retreat, Stroud; The Garage, Bristol and a placement in industry with medical model company Limbs & Things.
Ellie regularly works on commissions for universities, researchers, museums and archives amongst others. Commissioners, funders and partners have included: Arts Council England; We the Curious; The Vietnamese Women’s Museum; Pump House Gallery; The University of Bristol; The University of Cambridge; Historic England; The Royal Shakespeare Company; Wellcome Trust. Ellie is a member of Spilt Milk Gallery and an Associate at Spike Island.
