Julia McKinlay, PhD student with Leeds Beckett University and Yorkshire Sculpture International

Artistic practice

Julia McKinlay took up a practice-based PhD with Leeds Beckett University and Yorkshire Sculpture International in January 2018.

Through drawing, print and sculpture, she investigates the overlap between processes in nature and material processes in her studio at East Street Arts, in Leeds. She has been exploring the foundry as a site for manufacturing geology, how molluscs make and curate sculpture, and how the chemistry and pressure of print can mimic forces of nature.

Recent exhibition

In September 2019, Julia organised a group exhibition, Kuroko, in Leeds. Featuring five artists working in sculpture who are connected by all having worked or studied in both the UK and Japan. The exhibition was part of Index, the fringe festival  which ran alongside Yorkshire Sculpture International 2019.

For the show, she developed a body of work called ‘Coiled in a single plane, skimmed and separated’. The work brought together different strands of research into iron foundries, quarries and molluscs to make an installation of abstracted sculptural forms, made from materials such as steel, slag, and aluminium.

Artist’s Book

In March 2019 Julia was commissioned by Yorkshire Sculpture International and Leeds Beckett University to make an artist’s book, ‘Feeling the Underside’. The book, a box, containing digitally printed booklets as well as original prints, explores similar subject matter to her recent sculptures but through print and drawing.

Julia McKinlay, Feeling the Underside, an artist's book produced in partnership with Yorkshire Sculpture International and Leeds Beckett University, 2019. Etching. 1/25. Photography: Ricky Adam

Julia McKinlay, Feeling the Underside, an artist's book produced in partnership with Yorkshire Sculpture International and Leeds Beckett University, 2019. Etching. 1/25. Photography: Ricky Adam

Julia McKinlay, Feeling the Underside, an artist's book produced in partnership with Yorkshire Sculpture International and Leeds Beckett University, 2019. Etching. 1/25. Photography: Ricky Adam

Julia McKinlay, Feeling the Underside, an artist's book produced in partnership with Yorkshire Sculpture International and Leeds Beckett University, 2019. Etching. 1/25. Photography: Ricky Adam

Working with Yorkshire Sculpture International

Alongside making her own work, Julia has been based in the Yorkshire Sculpture International office in the lead up to, and during, the festival.

Julia started her work with us by researching sculpture fabrication and open access sculpture workshops in Yorkshire and throughout the UK. This was an informal survey of the places sculpture can be made by professional fabricators, as well as different models for workshops where artists can go to work themselves. One of our ambitions is to improve the conditions for making sculpture in Yorkshire and this research has fed into our activities over the last year, and will be useful for the festival in the future.

Julia worked with us on various strands of our public programme, including the Sculpture Talks lecture series at Leeds Art Gallery and also convened our symposium, which took place at Leeds Beckett University in September 2019.