‘Much of my work is about hiraeth, an acute longing for a particular feeling of home. I find glimpses and whispers of it in the elemental and ephemeral rhythms, patterns and sounds of nature: making connections between migration, materiality, memory and place.
As a child, I would always rush to get the front seat at the top of the double decker school bus to watch the changing cloudscapes and see the world like a bird in flight. As an art student in Edinburgh I made scribbly sketches of the dramatic winter sunsets from Greyfriars Bridge, and of stormy waters, winds and skies from Portobello beach- on the edges of things.
I am curious about the elasticity of time and the plurality of memory, gathering sensory experiences. Quickly captured plein air drawings become graphic scores for layered soundscapes, the rhythm for eccentrically woven iron tapestries and sculpted tokens made out of cow parsley, concrete and butterfly wings. Pocket poems.
During the Lockdowns I once more found solace in ‘skying’, as Constable called it. Catching air - fugitive clouds, starling murmurations, dancing leaves and swooping swallows, in my home skies. It’s a kind of multi-sensory, time-travelling. A weaving together of marks, materials, sounds, and stories.
I realised recently that at some point I stopped drawing people and animals, when they had once been so central to my work. Perhaps I have been hiding, or lost myself in other things. A figure is emerging once more'’
Miniature tapestry. 3cm x 3cm. Silk and linen.
Julieann Worrall Hood is based in rural Wiltshire.
Public commissions include sculptures in St. Peter’s Place Salisbury, The National Forest (Leicestershire), Cotswold Wildlife Park (Gloucestershire), in Basingstoke, Stratford on Avon and for Denver Museum of Childhood (USA), with corporate commissions for Conran and Chanel in London, Manchester and Dublin.
Julieann often works in partnership with her husband, gardener and poet Nick Hood. Projects include the acclaimed ‘Flowery Meads’ installation in the grounds of the beautiful Watermill Theatre, Newbury and a series of living sculptures for Conkers, the National Forest visitor centre in Leicestershire.
Cross disciplinary collaborations with Kneehigh Theatre Company and the Watermill Theatre have led to numerous indoor and outdoor installations, events, objects, and costumes for performance. She continues to explore shaping sound through the language of sculpture: creating evolving installations in Bath and pieces for Coldplay for international performances in 2019, 2021 and 2022
As an artist educator, Worrall Hood has devised and led projects in schools, museums, galleries and communities, nationally and internationally. She has held the positions of Head of Education at Roche Court Educational Trust (New Art Centre, Wiltshire) and Contemporary Arts Practice lecturer and subject leader at Bath Spa University, plus many artist-in-residence posts including in Kerala (India), Santarem (Portugal) and at the V&A (London). She has given numerous talks on her work and creative engagement, including at the Berlinische Galerie (Berlin) for the British Council, at the the V&A for the International Museums Education Conference, at the Victoria Art Gallery (Bath), the Crafts Council, NSEAD National Conference and online for The Being Human Festival in 2020. In December 2022, as a member of the Multisensory Art Project Team, she received the national Marsh Award for Excellence in Visual Arts Engagement.
Her work is held in public and private collections and features in Graham McLaren’s publication Creating Spaces: The History of the Bath Schools of Art & Design (Wunderkammer Press, 2020) and Shadowlands ( Drawing Correspondence, 2024).
