Statement

Jo Lathwood makes sculptures and large scale installations which regularly respond to a particular site, event, material or process. Working with recycled timber she has built a meandering staircase that travelled across 3 stories to facilitate the audience to touch the roof of a church. Experimenting with foundry technologies she has developed a way of making homemade lava sculptures and though researching traditional techniques she has made inks from Oak Galls.

Recurring themes are transitions, journeys, viewpoints, and illusions. Her practice is driven by a need to describe an emotional state through a physical space or object and engage viewers through an associated narrative. She is currently exploring impermanent works following as desire to no longer own or keep her artwork.

Her portfolio varies greatly in form, scale, context and method of production, encompassing: temporary and permanent public art, exhibitions curated for galleries and heritage sites (often as the outcome of an artist residency) and studio-based work.

Past activities include: Well Trodden Wrong Ways, dual exhibition at Themla Hulbert Gallery, East Devon, UK (2019); Getting There, solo exhibition at Fabrica, Brighton UK (2018); Curious Formations, TNA commission at Biddulph Grange, Stoke on Trent, UK (2017); Is it magma?, solo exhibition at Earth Gallery, University of Bristol, UK (2016);A Solid Above, Dual exhibition with Solveig Settemsdal at Hardwick Gallery, University of Gloucester, UK (2016); resident artist at Hestercombe Gallery and Gardens, Somerset, UK (2015); Art, Cities & Landscapes, commission in Amiens, France (2013). Lathwood was co-director of Ore and Ingot, an artist-led fine art bronze foundry in Bristol (2012 - 2019). Lathwood’s studio is based at Spike Island Artspace, Bristol.