Eleanor Sara Darley

Eleanor is a multimedia artist working in the UK. At the heart of her practice is an exploration into the technology of offerings, with a focus on how we bring ourselves and our environment into health and harmony.
She uses self-made inks, and wax crayons, charcoal from fires, chalk, mud and pigments gathered in the environments being explored, or because of the way a medium is alive in connection to her subject. Her work with the Ocean has led her to start exploring alabaster, and due to the significant pollution in our water, she has drawn on dumped unrecyclable plastic to make cyanotypes.
Her work shows a tension between form and essence, using movement, lines, shapes and imaginations to incorporate how the forces of nature communicate. The images become a body of research and lead to the development of an offering using image, sculpture, ritual or live art - a creative act which is open to invite others to observe or participate.
Eleanor is intent on using her art as a devotional and scientific way to counter ecological collapse. She addresses the importance of healthy imagery, using art to determine and magnify solutions for restoration and generate life force, especially for those who feel paralysis. ​Guided by ancestral traditions​, dreams, sound and a fascination with natural physics​ she ​draws in situ, responding to somatic perceptions, taking time to observe and listen directly from nature. The work is not symbolic; the technology of an offering is about functionality and amplifying​ the right conditions​ in nature’s already intelligent systems.
Eleanor’s current research focuses on ocean ​conservation in Marine Protected Areas and​ restoring dead zones resulting from industrial fishing. This year she took an ​art residency​ in Bahia, Brazil​ with 0101 Art Platform, deepening contextual learning about Afro-Brazilian ritual practices surrounding the ​sea, and a residency with the Ocean Advocate Academy in the UK to create work intended to inspire citizen science. Both have deepened her enquiry, informing a body of work conceived as a gift to the Ocean.
eleanorsara.com
@elle_darley