Anna has collaborated with museums, institutions and scientists all over the world, using her artwork as a vessel for scientific research to reach a wider audience.
Ultimately she strives to create curious objects that spark a childlike sense of wonder and appreciation of the natural world, whilst questioning our place within it.
Based in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, Anna Whitehouse utilises scientific imagery and research to inform her sculptural work, celebrating the small and highlighting the growing pressure the natural world is under. She strives to create curious objects that spark a childlike sense of wonder and appreciation of the natural world, whilst questioning our place within it. Porcelain is her chosen medium, as it mirrors the fragility of our ecosystems.
On 1st January 2018, Whitehouse began a project to make 1 bottle a day for 100 days. The aim was to free up her making and rapidly explore ideas towards a new collection of work. Each bottle is numbered and named after something that happened on that day.
In early 2016, Whitehouse was asked to produce a collection of work for Swarm, an exhibition that focused on the decline of the honey bee – using visual art as a way to communicate a serious ecological issue and engaging the audience by suggesting ways in which they could help.
She decided to investigate the seasonal forage available to bees, contacting local bee keeping associations and the North York Moors National Park Authority, as well as scouring the extensive RHS bee friendly plant list.
Using an online database of images from a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) for reference, she hand carved and modelled porcelain specimens of larger than life pollen grains, allowing the viewer into this beautiful and hidden microscopic world.
Whitehouse’s ceramics displayed in ‘Drawn from the Land’ make up just a small fraction of the body of work produced throughout the two projects.
