North Somerset Artist Commission, Alice Cunningham

Alice Cunningham is a visual artist whose diverse practice ranges from sculpture and carvings, to drawing and socially engaged work. Her work explored the materiality of things through a keen interest in people and our material engagement with the world around us. Alice is interested in ways that we can communicate, interact with and understand our surroundings, whilst disrupting common-place aesthetics to create interesting dialogues between material, people and place.

Remains is new sculptural re-imagining of Westons iconic Birnbeck pier, that considers the tension and balance between the built and natural habitats of Weston-Super-Mare's coastline. Through Alice’s experiments with the sand, sea water, mud and silt of Westons intertidal zone when the tide has gone out, a pier structure was wrapped in canvas printed directly in this location to create a large sea drawing. The work reflects on and connects with the natural environment and our complex relationship with it.

Grains of Sand is a programme of micro-commissions led by Super Culture for early career artists from North Somerset, with outcomes presented at the Promenade Weekender.