Julieann Worrall Hood's mixed media drawings, tapestries and sculptures weave together the synergies and spaces between sensory experience, memory and imagination.
Julieann Worrall Hood's mixed media drawings, tapestries and sculptures weave together the synergies and spaces between sensory experience, memory and imagination.
‘I have always drawn, made and invented, exploring and challenging the way I make meaning, finding connections between seemingly disparate things. I am fascinated by the intangibility of time, which we punctuate with markers, objects, like the marks and pauses in musical notation. Above all I am seeking ways to embody what is known in Welsh as ‘hiraeth’ – an acute longing for home, a place or time to which you cannot return and without which you are incomplete.’
A graduate of the Tapestry Department at Edinburgh College of Art, with an MFA from Bath Spa University, Julieann’s thought processes can be likened to the eccentric weft tapestries she makes, weaving together her fascination with the elemental forces of nature, stories, sensory experiences, time and timelessness.
Whilst tapestry artist-in-residence at the V&A in 1996 Julieann first came across exquisite Coptic miniature tapestries made eighteen centuries ago using an eccentric weaving technique similar to her own. These very fine fragments, with undulating wefts and fluid, dancing lines, continue to inform her practice.
Drawing is central to her practice, as a form of pure connection between the senses and the hand, be it drawing with pencil, threads or steel. Julieann recently created a series of large, leaping and running hares to public commission that took the form of three dimensional drawings in stainless steel, bounding across a park that links Salisbury Plain with the city of Salisbury. Corporate commissions from Conran and Chanel have led to sculptural installations in London, Manchester and Dublin, with further public commissions for Denver Museum, USA, The National Forest, Leicestershire, Luton Art Gallery and Museum and the Cotswold Wildlife Park, Sustrans Route 45.
Since 2017 an ongoing creative project with The Piano Shop in Bath has offered the opportunity to explore shaping sound through the language of drawing and sculpture using scrap piano parts as her raw material. The evolving installation Joyful Sound, made out of over 1000 piano keys, ebbs and flows through the ground floor display windows of the three Georgian buildings in central Bath. In 2019 and 2021 Julieann also collaborated with the Piano Shop team to create handcrafted pianos and set dressings for the band Coldplay for performances in Jordan, London and New York, bringing together traditional piano making and sculpture skills, textile mending methods, coded LED lighting and music from across cultures.
Alongside her own creative practice Julieann is known as an artist educator and lecturer, devising and leading projects in schools, museums, universities, galleries, theatres and communities nationally and internationally. Between 2017 and 2020 she was Head of Education at Roche Court Educational Trust, based at the New Art Centre near Salisbury, now continuing her connection as a freelance Creative Consultant.
In 2020 and 2021 in response the enforced changes due to the Covid 19 pandemic Julieann led on creative online and blended engagement for two projects:
- the Roche Court Educational Trust's 'Multi Sensory Art Project', creating opportunities for children with profound and multiple disabilities to experience contemporary art through all their senses
- Salisbury Museum's 'Look Again' project, co-curating a new Fashion Gallery with local young people and museum and design professionals
Before joining the team at Roche Court Julieann was a lecturer and module leader for Mixed Media Textiles on the Contemporary Arts Practice and Creative Arts degree courses at Bath Spa University, where she instigated interdisciplinary collaborations such as the Lines of Desire project exploring place through Art, Geography, Creative Writing, film and digital mapping.
Julieann is an artist and educator with more than twenty years experience of creating artwork to public and private commission and devising and leading projects in schools, museums, communities, theatres, art galleries and in the great outdoors.
A creative force who thrives on interdisciplinary collaboration, Julieann delights in finding ways to create opportunities for all to take part in wonderful moments of shifted perception, insight and enjoyment.
Qualifications
2016 MFA Bath Spa University
2013 PGCE Greenwich University
1987 B.A (Hons) Edinburgh College of Art. Edinburgh University
Drawing, Tapestry & Structures
Employment and Positions Held
2017 - 2020 Head of Education, Roche Court Educational Trust, New Art Centre, Wiltshire
2016 - 2017 Module leader Years 1 -3, Mixed Media Textiles, Contemporary Arts Practice BA, Creative Arts BA, Bath Spa University
2012 - 2016 Associate Lecturer. Bath Spa University, Bath School of Art & Design. Creative Arts and Contemporary Arts Practice BA courses
2001 -2003 Board Member, Southern Arts (Arts Council England, Regional Arts Board)
1999 - 2001 Public Art Advisory Panel member, Kennet District Council
1989 - present freelance artist, educator and consultant: devising and delivering projects in schools, museums, galleries, theatres and communities and creating artwork, exhibitions and events to public and private commission
1988 - 1990 Associate lecturer at Jacob Kramer School of Art, Leeds on Art and Design Foundation and B’Tec courses and B.A Drawing Tutor at Bretton Hall College, Wakefield
1988 - 1990 Assistant to Jonathan Silver and David Hockney, 1853 Gallery, Salts Mill, Saltaire, Bradford including the live, international fax transmission filming of Tennis in 1989
Awards
2014-2015 Theo Moorman Award (Tapestry)
2006 Southern Arts Individual Artist Award (to create new sculptures for a solo show)
2000 - 2001 Arts Council Year of the Artist Award (Wiltshire Wildlife Trust and BBC Springwatch)
1993 Southern Arts International Travel Award (International Performing Arts,Kerala, India)
1989 Yorkshire Arts Individual Artist Award
1989 Crafts Council Setting Up Award (now known as Hothouse)
1986 Andrew Grant Travel Award, Edinburgh College of Art (Paris)
Numerous Commissions, Exhibitions and Projects including:
2019-2020 The Salisbury Museum, Look Again! project. Redesigning the Fashion Gallery displays and engagement methods with the involvement of a group of local young people and in collaboration with Museum volunteers and learning, heritage, design, theatre, sound and digital professionals. Project paused due to Covid-19
https://lookagaintsm.wordpress.com
2019 The British Council, Germany. Invited speaker at Museums Reach Out! at the Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, sharing innovative and inclusive practise in creative museum outreach with museum educators from across Germany. Talk entitled ‘Believing six impossible things before breakfast.’
Coldplay, Everyday Life live album launch Amman, Jordan and internationally. Lead artist with the team at The Piano Shop Bath, creating pianos for performance and textile set dressing for the band Coldplay- theme repair, kintsugi, mending, textile techniques from across cultures.
https://www.thepianoshopbath.co.uk/news/creating-pianos-for-coldplays-everyday-life/
Salisbury International Arts Festival. In conversation with artist Peter Newman at the New Art Centre.
London Festival of Architecture, 8-80 A City for All. Collaborative research and workshop with Erect Architecture and author Jeremy Page at Camley Street Nature Reserve and Coal Drops Yard, London with participants from the Royal College of Art, Age Concern and local Primary Schools https://www.erectarchitecture.co.uk/journal/call-60-year-olds-mind-utopian-visions/
The Piano Shop Bath, Joyful Sound: In the Pink the third iteration of this large scale sculptural installation in Bath
The Victoria Art Gallery, Bath. Invited speaker for the Friends of Victoria Art Gallery public lecture series. Talk entitled ‘A web of possibilities: ideas about sculpture are ideas about life itself’
2018 Forest of the Imagination, Bath. Electro Twitchers - interactive digital sound sculptures installed in public spaces in central Bath, made in collaboration with Creative Technologist Luke Woodbury and pupils from Three Ways Special School
https://vimeo.com/292660850
The Piano Shop Bath, Joyful Sound: weaving light the second iteration of this large scale sculptural installation in Bath
2017 Persimmon Homes, Salisbury. A series of 4 stainless steel tube, scribbly hare sculptures. Public sculpture commission
The Piano Shop Bath, 'Joyful Sound' sculptural installation of over 1500 scrap piano keys made into an undulating wave evoking sound.
Fringe Arts, Bath. Home: The Poetics of Space. Dark Matter group pop up exhibition for FaB17
2016 Lane House Arts, Bath. Renaissance Menagerie, exhibition with painter Leslie Glenn Damhus
Chanel. Series of sculptural woven rattan forms and contemporary rattan Christmas trees for Christmas displays. Leading a studio team to fulfil this commission in a very short timescale. Chanel, New Bond Street, Selfridges Oxford Street, Harrods and Heathrow Terminal 5, London. Also Selfridges Manchester and Dublin.https://www.axisweb.org/p/julieannworrallhood/#projects
Bath School of Art & Design. MFA Degree Show.
2015 Bath Spa University. Lines of Desire, interdisciplinary Art & Geography research project with Richard Long, Sue Lawty, Dr Rebecca Schaaf and Professor Owain Jones and the learning team at Arnolfini Bristol. Additional outcomes: peer reviewed research paper and film
Bath Artist Studios. Dark Matters group exhibition
2014 The Children’s Museum of Denver, USA, 3 large willow, wire and steel mice sculptures on a 5m diameter suspended steel ring for permanent exhibit.
2012 The Conran Shop, London. Design and create the Spring window installation at Conran, Michelin House, Chelsea, including 50 suspended wire sculptures.
Welford Park, Newbury. Boxford Masques large scale community outdoor theatre production. Set & costume design and leading the team of volunteers.
2011 Basingstoke Council, Beggarwood Park. Letter cut green oak sculptural signposts and waymarkers in collaboration with Gary Breeze.
2010 Watermill Theatre, Newbury. Bullets and Beetroot Lips. Set and costume design.
2009 RHS Gardens Hyde Hall. Installation of 6 wire hare sculptures in the grounds.
2008 Cotswold Water Park. 3m tall Laser cut steel Bittern gateway sculptures and smaller waymarkers. Sustrans Route 45
David Wilson Homes, Basingstoke. Public mosaic plaza in collaboration with students from Everest Community College
Chelsea Flower Show, London. Daylesford Organic show garden kinetic willow and linen scarecrow (Silver Gilt)
2007 Watermill Theatre, Newbury. River of Dreams, West Berkshire Federation of Schools set and costume design and performance outreach art project with 6 primary schools.
2006 The Watermill Theatre, Newbury. The Romance of the Rose. Environmental art and sculpture installation in the grounds.
2005 Carnival. Solo exhibition in the grounds of the Watermilll Theatre, Newbury
Kneehigh Theatre Co. Techno wings for Wagstaffe the Wind Up Boy.
2003, 2004 and 2006 Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council. A series of mosaic paving and plaza mosaics for public spaces.
2001 The National Forest Sculpture Trail, Leicestershire. A series of 3 metre tall, steel, stone and willow sculptures.
2000 Wiltshire Wildlife Trust Artist in Residence, outreach project with local youth groups
1998 Christie Miller Sports Centre and George Ward School, Melksham. Artist in residence for large scale community and school mosaic project
1997 Lead Artist, V&A, International Museums Education Conference: The Raphael Cartoons. Leading workshops and talks for international museum curators and educators and related tapestry projects with schools.
1996 Tapestry artist in residence Victoria & Albert Museum, London http://www.vam.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/177693/4115_file.pdf
1993 - 94 Salisbury District Council. Artist in Residence
1992 NSEAD National Conference. Invited speaker and presented exhibition of Wiltshire LEA residency.
1991-92 Wiltshire Education Authority and Southern Arts. Artist in Residence to Wiltshire Education Authority for 12 months.
1990-91 Take Art! Somerset. Craftsperson in Residence to Somerset, working with women and groups geographically, economically and/or socially isolated. 12 month residency in 7 villages around Somerset creating sustainable women’s groups through craft and heritage activities, building partnerships across sectors.
European Parliament Artist Exchange: UK and Portugal. Selected to represent the UK in a European artist exchange project. Working with artists, schools and community groups in Santarem, Portugal
