MA Performance Design graduate George Moody wins 2024 Yorkshire Graduate Award
An MA Performance Design graduate has won the 2024 Yorkshire Graduate Award from Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP)
An MA Performance Design graduate has won the 2024 Yorkshire Graduate Award from Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP), becoming the second graduate from the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures to win the prize in successive years.
Launched in 2018 to nurture regional artistic talent, the award attracts an eclectic mix of entries that feature a variety of mediums, including sculpture, installation, performance, film, photography, and audio. The annual residency is open to recently graduated BA or MA artists from any Yorkshire-based university.
George Moody, a Leeds-based artist who graduated with an MA in Performance Design from the School of Performance and Cultural Industries in 2023, won this year’s award, which includes a two-week residency at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, along with access to facilities, curatorial support, a £750 fee, and £250 for materials to develop new ideas.
Moody’s multi-disciplinary practice spans bio art, sculpture, photography, installation, and digital technologies. Their work is heavily influenced by Queer Ecology, combining eco-criticism and queer theory to explore nature's unique rhythms.
During their upcoming residency at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Moody plans to extend these ideas, experimenting with sustainable materials such as bioplastics made from algae and water samples collected from YSP's lake. The work will culminate in a public event, exploring the lifespan and transformation of these natural materials.
The artist’s recent projects include It Ends with You, an installation of decaying foliage and mould suspended in mid-air, which invited audiences to witness the transformation of organic matter over two days. The installation was viewed as a ‘love note’ to natural materials, showcasing their adaptive qualities.
It Ends with You built on practice-based research undertaken by Moody as part of the MA Performance Design course. It was showcased at Leeds Light Night 2023 and in the Alec Clegg studio – an experimental black box theatrical laboratory named after Wakefield’s Chief Educational Officer, founder of Bretton Hall College, and a key figure in post-war arts education.
Speaking to the Yorkshire Post, George Moody said:
“Inspired by the ideas of Queer Ecology, my work seeks to attune to a ‘nature’ we haven’t reckoned with yet; one that transgresses our conceptions of nature as mute and passive to the climate crisis. I’m always questioning how to get closer to the spaces and paces of a queer ecology.
“My work is always material-led, asking what I can do to fall in step with the traces of a slippery ‘nature’ that we encounter unknowingly on an everyday basis. Queer notions of intimacy and care always inform how I engage with natural matter, unstitching their simplistic narratives.”
They added: “Receiving the award feels like an incredible opportunity to see my work flourish in a place I’ve been inspired by for years. It is incredibly validating to know the curatorial team recognises what my practice strives to do and wants to support its development. This opportunity will be one that shapes my future, and I will always be enormously grateful for that.”
Yorkshire Sculpture Park Deputy Curator Louise Lohr praised the quality of talent in the region and noted that artist residencies have been a core part of YSP’s mission for over 47 years, providing emerging artists like Moody a platform to advance their creative practice.
Each year we’re so impressed with the standard of applications we receive – there’s an incredible amount of talent in the region. We’re delighted to be able to support George and look forward to seeing how their work develops.
George Moody is the second successive graduate from the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures to win the award, following 2023’s winner Astrid Butt. Astrid, a graduate from the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, uses animal-human hybrid characters to explore femininity, motherhood, and domestication. Influenced by the style of classic David Lynch horror films, Astrid used YSP’s 500-acre parkland to full effect during her residency, shooting expansive and atmospheric footage for her new short film.
Astrid said:
“Getting the Yorkshire Graduate Award has been an incredible opportunity. The time I’ve spent at the Park has been unforgettable. YSP has given me the opportunity to balance my skills, compensated me for my work and time, and given me a platform to share my art with the public, for which I am endlessly thankful.”
