Painter Bridget Roseberry and painter and sculptor Katrina Slack are Cornwall-based artists, who, in 2020 collaborated with James Scourse, Professor of Physical Geography and Alejandro Roman-Gonzalez, researcher and marine scientist at the University of Exeter.

In 2019 James and Alejandro took part in a research expedition to Antarctica, which investigated impacts of physical disturbance arising from climate-warming induced deglaciation on creatures living on the ocean floor around the West Antarctic Peninsula. They sent Bridget and Katrina sound recordings and images to work with from the expedition. The artists also spent time with James and Alejandro in the lab looking at images under microscopes.

The work produced by the artists explored microscopic worlds in the ocean and on the ice whilst simultaneously drawing attention to the effects of climate change on the Antarctic environment.

The physical exhibition was due to take place at the ESI Creative Exchange Space on Penryn Campus in April 2020 but due to the onset of the pandemic lockdown, their imaginations turned to an online exhibition.

Their stunning virtual exhibition, containing original photographs by Alejandro Roman-Gonzalez and the artistic responses of Bridget Roseberry and Katrina Slack is entitled Rare Earth. Visit the Rare Earth exhibition, a collaboration of art and science, here.

Katrina Slack

Katrina Slack is an artist and environmental campaigner currently working from her studio in Carbis Bay Cornwall, she works in a range of mediums as a painter and a sculptor. Her practice is motivated by her love for the natural world and the diversity of creatures that inhabit it. As these animals and environments become scarcer, she feels an increasing sense of loss and isolation which is expressed in her artwork.

She creates ceramic sculptures working with themes of extinction and endangered species. She also creates sculptures made from found materials including fishing line and plastics. Her work has been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles and at the Natural History Museum in London. She has also been featured on BBC Springwatch. She is a regular contributor to the Penwith Gallery in St Ives and her work is sold in galleries in Cornwall, Devon and Brighton. She has also been involved in a number of collaborative projects including working with World Animal Protection and recently the Rare Earth (Antarctica) Creative Exchange collaboration at Exeter University with Bridget Roseberry, James Scourse and Alejandro Roman-Gonzalez.

Her experience working on the Rare Earth ESI Creative Exchange project has inspired her practice since, and this can be seen in her artworks in the Catalyst exhibition.

Find out more about the artist Katrina Slack on her website https://www.katrinaslack.co.uk/

Bridget Roseberry

Bridget Roseberry was born in St Ives, Cambridgeshire into a family of musicians. She studied painting at Ipswich School of Art and at Brighton College of Art, before putting her personal practice aside and following a career in arts administration, computer graphics and publishing.

After moving to St Ives Cornwall in 2000, she began to draw and paint again, joining the Porthmeor Programme at St Ives School of Painting in its earliest years. Since then she has exhibited locally including The Crypt Gallery, the Penwith Gallery, the Penwith Society of Artists, and in the Tate St Ives 2019 staff exhibition Environments, as well as the Rare Earth (Antarctica) online creative collaboration with Katrina Slack. A keen amateur musician and sea swimmer, Bridget’s happiest hours are spent digging on her allotment near Zennor and walking with her dog in the Penwith landscape. She has a studio in Towednack.

Find out more about Bridget Roseberry at www.bridgetroseberry.uk

Both artists have been inspired by their experience of working with the scientists at the University of Exeter, and their artworks in the Catalyst exhibition demonstrate how they have taken the themes of Rare Earth further – creating their own abstract interpretations of underwater landscapes, sediment, melting ice and microscopic creatures. You can enter the Catalyst exhibition gallery and view their artworks by clicking on the image below.

About 'Catalyst'

Showcasing nearly a decade of arts/science collaborations at the the University of Exeter's Environment and Sustainability Institute, Penryn, Catalyst features new work by twelve artists, all of whome have previously worked with researchers as part of the ESI Creative Exchange.