FINE ART RESEARCH (FAR) TALKS: RHONA EVE CLEWS

Whether melting her body into the innards of her home photocopier, filming erupting geyser postcards found on eBay or crawling on her belly to enter macro-pollen perspectives, Rhona works across text, image, and performance in attempts to collapse ecological distance. Her practice foregrounds our somatic interconnectedness with the earth and looks to eco-feminisms, phenomenology, science-fiction literature and cinema alongside innovations within self-help psychology. She physically performs her compulsion to meld minds with multiple subjectivities and clamber inside other ‘bodies’ drawing upon her past of growing up a hippie to re-situate photography, writing and filmmaking into expanded, somatic, eco- feminist practices and contribute to wider ecologies of care.
Rhona exhibits internationally and often speaks, co-curates and teaches on the connective tissue between art, ecology and psychology/spirituality with previous audiences including Chelsea College of Art, UCL Department of the Anthropocene and London Science Fiction Research Community. She has performed for Black Mountain College Museum, Creative Time, New York and completed art residencies in UK, Australia, and USA.Rhona was self-taught in art until aged 33, has a Bachelors in Psychology, a Postgraduate Diploma in Photography, and an MFA in Fine Art, from Slade School of Fine Art. Her simultaneous healing career (25+ years) unconventionally began as her father was a convicted armed robber, plunging her into addressing her self-esteem, embracing myriad art, ecology, healing and somatic approaches.She has a background in Clinical Psychology and now works as a Healer and Mentor. She’s currently studying a Diploma in Environmental Humanities, is a lively member of two art collectives and co-runs The More- Than-Human book club at Barbican library, which collaborated with RE/SISTERS for an edition alongside the major exhibition, November 2023.

Bio: Rhona Eve Clews rhonaeveclews.com @rhonaeve insta

Host or Publisher School of Arts