The GiR programme runs for 12 months and allows the artists to build their professional journey as a creative whilst contributing to the school’s fine art and design curriculum. Joining the group of 15 resident artists is Elodie Baldwin who studied both undergraduate and postgraduate courses at Gray’s.

Starting with Gray’s in 2016, she found inspiration from the range of workshops available to her through her studies in BA (Hons) Contemporary Art Practice. She loved the multimedia nature of the course, which she credits to giving her the freedom to find her niche and fine-tune her practice.

Elodie than went on to study MA Fine Art in 2020. The Scottish-Iraqi artist explored the mythology of the Marsh Arabs of Iraq during her MA studies through a series of paintings, a short-film and artist’s book. She explored the subject and focused on the fine line between fact, fiction and time in exploring the historic land.

She shares: “Captured in a time bubble, the marshes illustrate the temporal qualities of forgotten land. The return of the forgotten and of the repressed, emerges through the uncanny marshlands of memory. Every aspect of humanity must be considered from the perspective of time.

“The name of my MA Degree Show exhibit was called ‘Dweller’ and it consisted of a short film with puppets. I was extremely excited for the run up for the exhibition which took place at Look Again. It was also the first exhibition I had shown work at since the pandemic so it was great to be able to show work physically again.”

Following her Masters, Elodie went on to join the GiR 2022/2023 cohort to further her artistic practice. The programme allowed her to build teaching experience through leading tutorials with MA students in addition to her building her final exhibition.

“My exhibition is largely a follow on from what I did in the MA with similar themes and areas of research. On the 25th I’ll be showing a a short stop-motion film which explores and reimagines an ancient, lesser known Mesopotamian myth called ‘Inanna and Shukaletuda’”.

Elodie’s exhibition along with the works of her GiR colleagues can be viewed during the Gray’s Masters Degree Show.