This week I’ve been browsing a lot of art school graduates‘ work as well as emerging artists’ work to find artworks that fit with my theme for my initial large-scale selection.
In this post, I explore 4 number of artists from around the UK，Olivia (Livvy) Azzopardi, Esther Castle, Émile Allard, Ella Binstead.
Olivia (Livvy) Azzopardi
Olivia Azzopardi is a queer deaf British artist based in the East- Midlands and Kent. Her practise revolves around human-nature exchanges and personal narratives through Ceramic, Video and Installation.
This body of skin casts and etchings develops confessional poetry into a series of more reflective personal narratives to Olivia’s mental health. SKINS (2021), informed by the artist’s skin condition of Urticaria (constant hiving and itchiness), rashes and plumes of text are bursting out emotions.
Esther Castle
https://edinburghsculpture.org/residency-featured/esw-eca-graduate-awards-2025/
Esther Castle is an Edinburgh-based artist whose work delves into personal experiences of childhood illnesses, using art as a means of exploring and altering these realities. Through the process of ‘fictionalising reality’ she re-imagines and reconstructs her past through artistic expression. A key element of her work is the investigation of the garden space, where she draws symbolic connections between non-canonical bodies and weeds, which are often considered unwanted and removed by gardeners.
Castle’s anthropomorphic sculptures are inspired by her description of cancer cells as mysterious, uncontrollable growths. This idea of strange, unexplained growth informs the sometimes disturbing organic forms she creates. Through her art, Castle offers a unique commentary on physical difference, control and society’s view of what is ‘natural’ or ‘undesirable’.
Émile Allard
https://edinburghsculpture.org/whats-on/emilie-allard-end-of-residency-event/
Drawing on themes of memory, labyrinths and hyper-specialised organs, this latest series invites viewers to reflect on the role and resonance of art in public and institutional spaces today.
Ella Binstead
“Throughout my Fine Art degree I have always been interested in artworks with a strong sensory reception and their effect on our bodies and emotional state. My sculptural work portrays an in-betweenness of state that suggests a materiality frozen in gesture aimed to anthropomorphize and intensify the anticipation of touch and exploration.”
Seductive visual tactility runs throughout her work, encouraging the eye to act as a tactile organ, attempting to enhance intimacy through tactile means.
Blog Cover © 2025 by Chuni Mao is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 
SKINS (2021). © 2025 by Chuni Mao is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
Émile Allard’s work © 2025 by Chuni Mao is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
Visual Tactility © 2025 by Chuni Mao is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
