Mads Washbrook (b.2001) is a multi-disciplinary artist and writer working across film, writing, ritual performance, print, and sculpture to construct narratives of spirituality, feminine rage, Earthly being, and hybridity. Within her performances, she works site specifically in response to sacred Celtic sites of historical significance with absurd sculptures and costumes inspired by Celtic rituals to investigate past, present, and future Celtic storytelling. Her work often revisits the cyclicality of rebirth to map the complexity of a rhizomatic feminine existence defined by violence and seek a healing of this violence through physical hybridity.
In October 2023, Washbrook was selected as the artist fellow for the Whitworth Wallis Fellowship with Birmingham Museum Trust and Birmingham School of Art.
CV
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 | ABSENCE, Stryx Community Cafe and Gallery, Jewellery Quarter, 22nd – 27th January.
2023 | Telling The Faerie Folk About Carnac, as a part of Kaleidoscope: MA Fine Art Degree Show, Birmingham School of Art, 31 August – 3 September.
2023 | MA Fine Art Inter-institutional Symposium, Zion Baptist Church and Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, 26-27 June.
2023 | Aftermath, Pop Up Exhibition, with Amass Collective, Asylum Art Gallery, Wolverhampton, 23 June.
2023 | Sweet Dreams Sweet by Melati Suryodarmo, Passionate Pilgrim, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, 17 May.
2023 | Duplicate Publishing Fair, as 3:03 Collective, Eastside Projects, 5 May.
2023 | Exhibition in a Box, as 3:03 Collective, Birmingham School of Art, 28 March.
2022 | CTRL, Birmingham School of Art, End of Degree Show, Birmingham, 16 June – 25 June.
2022 | Inspired Festival, Birmingham City University, Grand Central Media Eyes and Ad Van on Edgbaston Street, 11 June.
2022 | EN:TRANCE, Stryx Gallery, Birmingham, 15 March.
2022 | Duplicate Publishing Fair, as BAAAD Press, Birmingham School of Art, 7 May.
2022 | Testing and Trying Out, Black Hole Club XX Duplicate, Vivid Projects, with BAAAD Press, Birmingham, 6 May.
2021-2022 | A4, Oddball Space, Digbeth, Camden, Brick Lane, and online, 16 November – 19 February.
2021 | WORM (Virtual exhibition and publication), Round Lemon, Zest Hall, 07 June – 31 July.
2020 | Locked-Down (Virtual exhibition), Oddball Gallery, Oddball Space, 10 August – 10 October.
2020 | Shifting Positions, Birmingham School of Art, 14-15 January.
2018 | WW1 Poppy Centenary Installation, Co-Created Community Project, Belper Memorial Gardens, 11 November.
Solo Performances
2023 | The Journey To The Tor: Telling The Faerie Folk About Carnac, Glastonbury Tor, 30 July.
2023 | effeuiller la marguerite (pluck the daisy), Belper Lane, 22 April.
2023 | birth of a new deity, Swinney Woods, 11 March.
2023 | the tenth lady, 9 Ladies Stone Circle, 13 April.
2022 | crude hybridity, Birmingham School of Art, 3 December.
2021 | where is the utopia i was promised?, Virtual, 6 December.
Education
2024 | Immersive Arts Bootcamp, BOM (Birmingham Open Media).
2022-2023 – MA Fine Art, Birmingham School of Art, Distinction.
2019-2022 – BA Fine Art (Hons), Birmingham School of Art, First-Class Honours.
Awards and Projects
2023-2024 | Whitworth Wallis Fellowship
2023 | Birmingham School of Art Endowment Fund: The Human Figure
2022 | Mike Holland Award
2022 | Major Project Dissertation Prize
Selected Publications
2022 | The Lightless Christmas, Published by YouLove Print and Amazon.
2022 | Live Projects, Published by Holodeck; Birmingham.
2021 | WORM.EXHIB, Digital exhibition catalogue, Round Lemon; Birmingham.
Projects and Other Activity
2023 – Present | Member of the Explorers Network Directory Forum
2023 – Present | Studio Holder at The Lombard Method
2023-Present | Founding Member of A.T.H.E.N.A Research Group
2023-Present | Front of House Team Member at Ikon Gallery and Vivid Projects
2023-Present | Member of Amass Collective
2023 | Acted as a performer within Melati Suryodarmo’s Sweet Dreams Sweet performances, commissioned by Ikon Gallery, 2023.
2022-2023 | Co-Founder of 3:03 Collective
2021 | Participant of Holly Hendry’s Workshop to develop the design for the ‘Lipsync’ STEAMHouse commission
DOWNLOAD CV
Mads Washbrook 