b. 1982, USA; lives and works in the UK
2007-10 Royal Academy Schools, London
Rachael Champion makes site-specific artworks that explore the physical, material, and historical relationships between ecology, industry, and the built environment.
Her works are typically large in scale and consist of living organisms and ubiquitous building materials. Coalescing at an intersection between biology, geology, and architecture, Champion addresses the corporeality of the materials we extract, transform, and consume and how these actions affect the physical characteristics of landscapes and ecosystems.
For Cure3 she has presented a site-specific sculpture entitled Sulphuric Gastropod Chamber. This piece juxtaposes the clinically clear geometric space of the cube with an assemblage of natural found objects in a pseudo-geological form as if preserving a fossilised slice of earth for future study. This is typical of Champion’s work which often manifests as a response to a place or a landscape, contrasting industrial materials with ecological matter such as plants, grasses and algae.
Champion’s work has been exhibited in a number of recognised institutions including the Royal Academy of Arts, The Whitechapel Gallery, Modern Art Oxford, Camden Arts Centre and the Zabludowicz Collection.