about

^{Life Saving, a series of gestures during a residency located at Three Cliff's Bay in The Gower, South Wales, 2014}

Annie Rapstoff is an interdisciplinary artist based in the South East, UK.  She is interested in the interrelationship between earth/land and the human experience, often in dialogue with other species. Over recent years she has explored the processes of kinship with water and since the pandemic has become entwined with birds. Strategies of sensing and embodiment in space are employed, whilst having a need to communicate through research, language and a phenomenological approach. Underpinning her work is a sense of heart felt grief for the impact we as humans have on our environment 

Her work can take the form of instructions, performance for the camera and in situ, gestures, interventions, video and text. Past work has been participatory, collaborative and often process based or ephemeral. More recently an ongoing pain condition has led to exploring new avenues of practice which are less taxing on her body, including painting, printmaking, stitch and embroidery.   

Annie's work can been seen in galleries, at conferences, live art events and in public spaces. Recently she has been inhabiting masks fabricated into bird extensions, including movement and gestures. In addition, she has been investigating urban and rural geology including red sandstone, using the action of mark making, through rubbing and scarifying. These small works explore surface, decay and imperfection in layers, particularly cracks in pavements, continuing an ongoing concern around fragile surfaces and hidden depths.

She has developed workshops with children and adults, has curated and developed live art events and is particularly interested in working in collaboration with other artists and across disciplines, past collaborations can be seen here.

Valuable words: Allowing for uncertainty, play, meandering through words and ideas, listening to what may be beneath the surface, ecologies of experience in relationship with animals, plants, other objects and the land.