Esther Castle

Esther's art practice is a reflection on a past childhood illness and a process of ‘fictioning of reality’, where she creates worlds where peculiar things can grow. She feels the need to reflect on this experience as a way of processing her own disability which she acquired due to her illness, as well as questioning what the ‘disabled’ body’s place in society is in an explorative way. The blobby figures she creates are both survivors of an illness but also the illness itself, inspired by the way cancer cells were often described to her as unexplained, curious growths that took control. Through investigating the garden space, she aims to draw comparisons with how non-normative bodies are unruly in similar ways to weeds, often extricated by ‘gardeners’ due to their ‘undesirable’ nature. Esther also aims to create ‘stage set’ spaces, where multiple paintings can interact with sculpture and installation, creating an ambiguous and layered world.