Rachael Campbell-Palmer’s explorations of materiality describe our relationship to the contemporary urban environment. She experiments with site-specific groupings of objects that refer both to the industrial and the hand-crafted. Often taking influence from the built landscape of her native Belfast the work has qualities of the archeological, of ruins or relics of a vestige of a culture.
Rachael Campbell-Palmer is a Belfast based sculptor. Her practice is rooted in material research and studio processes. Using traditional mould making and casting techniques she works pragmatically with industrial materials. The pieces she makes consider associations between physical space and cognitive experience, exploring concepts and imagery connected with location, memory and architecture. Often working in series or multiples, her work is also inspired by ideas of replication and production; the impossibility of uniformity using a handmade technique paired with the pursuit of perfecting a skill and product.
Rachael graduated with an MFA from the University of Ulster. After graduating she spent time living and working in Glasgow and Vancouver BC, Canada. She returned to Belfast in 2013 to complete a two-year directorship with Platform Arts; an artist-led studio collective and gallery space. Exhibitions of her work include, Edgelands Framewerk Belfast (Aug 2017),TULCA 2016; The Headless City curated by Dan Dewsbury, Methods for Egress QSS Gallery Belfast (Jan-Feb 2016), Periodical Review#5 NCAD Gallery Dublin (Dec 2015), Bathhouse Field Notes, The Caretaker’s House Templemore Baths, (Nov-Dec 2015) Reassemble for Purpose Platform Arts Belfast (Feb 2015), TERRA FIRMA PS2 Belfast (Aug 2014). Rachael is Director of The Black Box Belfast and co-curates NEO NEO; a series of immersive live events that provide a platform for collaborative practices between electronic music and visual art.