Polly Jane Wilson

Polly Jane Wilson is a visual artist who has just completed an MA in Sculpture at the Slade. Polly’s practice deals with the rural and urban disconnect, specifically the challenges of future land use for food production, exploring the complexities of feeding a growing population whilst moving towards global sustainability. Polly’s process is material-led – she endeavours to re-enchant commonplace substances such as sand, graphite, and straw, working closely with each material to create new processes and applications. Works are often realised as ephemeral, site-specific installations. Drawing from her own personal experience of growing up on a commercial farm, Polly considers the rural landscape as both an ecological system and an industrialized space for mass food production, essential to human nourishment. By re-claiming rural crafts and pushing them beyond their traditional application, Polly intends to disrupt how we value agricultural output – elevating straw to the same level of importance as the grain, whilst honouring worn-out machinery.

Polly is excited to take part in Art School Plus to learn more about how to access opportunities that push her to increase the scale and ambition of the works she makes, along with meeting other artists at the same point in their journey.