EXHIBITION: WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND

This exhibition of works by artist Nicky Carter takes its inspiration from the industrial ruins of Anglesey. Ynys Mon, as she is known in her language is loved for her beaches, coastal walks and wildlife, and her sunshine when Eryri is in cloud. The first pieces show the decaying beauty of places like Porth Wen Brickworks but move on to imagine what sites might be like without their ruins and then to imagine the landscape with the spirit of their workers embedded within them. We all have a sense of leaving part of our spiritual selves in landscapes we care about. These workers left much of themselves behind including their lives and livelihoods when industries were closed because they were no longer profitable, and were abandoned much in the same way as the physical sites were. 

What we leave behind is clearly a wide-open concept and the artist then moves onto what we leave behind in terms of our loved ones, and what is left behind in us by the many people we encounter in our lives. For the artist this is represented by “30 years a Sponge”, a reflection on her 40-year career as a Health Care Professional. Throughout the exhibition, there are also examples of the artist's poetry which are relevant to the theme or individual visual works.

Nicky Carter is an NHS Health Care Professional who took partial retirement in 2016 to take her UAL Foundation Diploma in Art and Design. She then became part of the Liverpool Not Just Collective and has exhibited with them in the city and in New Mills Derbyshire. She has also been part of the Plas Bodfa exhibitions run by Julie Upmeyer in Ynys Mon. She took full retirement in 2021 to give more time to grandchildren and writing poetry. Her first collection, The Ghosts of A and E, was published in September 2024.

Location: The Art Space, Cass Art Liverpool

Dates: 9th - 15th December 2024

Admission: FREE

This exhibition has step-free access.