Sue Bradshaw

Local Contemporary Art Prize 2025 – Finalist

Image courtesy of the artist

Sue Bradshaw | Urban Shadow | 2025 | slip cast stoneware with eco dyed local foliage and digital image on celluloid sleeves | 31 x 46 x 46cm (variable)

While preparing for an eco-dyeing workshop, I observed that the cones I had crafted bore a striking resemblance to fossil fuel power stations. This observation inspired me to create a visual metaphor contrasting power stations with their natural counterparts, Earth's essential trees.

Power plants are significant contributors to carbon dioxide emissions due to fossil fuel combustion, leading to air pollution and increased Earth surface temperatures. Conversely, trees absorb carbon dioxide, thereby reducing air pollution, providing shade, mitigating stormwater runoff, and significantly enhancing native bird, mammal, and insect populations.

The prevalent availability of electricity supports urbanisation, encouraging disposable lifestyles. Extensive housing developments with vast rooftops and impervious surfaces contribute to deforestation, habitat destruction, flash flooding, and negatively impacting our health and wellbeing.

My goal is to illustrate the encroachment of urbanisation into the natural environment. As individuals revel in leisurely park outings, finding solace in nature amidst hectic city life, urban and industrial waste accumulates, and feral animals proliferate due to human neglect.

This installation aims to raise awareness and inspire a shift in perspective, prompting reflection on our individual roles within this environmental context.