This spring visitors to The Lowry galleries will have a rare opportunity to meet the artist who created wearable sculpture for Lady Gaga and remembrance poppies from lamb’s heart tissue.

Internationally acclaimed London based artist Paddy Hartley will be working inside a specially made studio in The Lowry’s gallery from Sat 1 April – Sun 14 May. Born in Dewsbury West Yorkshire, Hartley studied ceramics and sculpture at Cardiff University. He will create WW1 archaeology artefacts based on life in the trenches and some of the stories people share with him.

Alongside working in his studio in The Lowry’s gallery, Hartley will present a mini-retrospective of his artwork since 2002. Including ‘Papaver Rhoeas,’ eight botanically accurate poppies created entirely from lamb’s heart tissue. Which will be displayed together for the first time after previously being exhibited across London at 11 different venues.

Paddy Hartley’s artistic practice investigates themes of memorialisation, remembrance and the passing of memory. During his time at The Lowry Hartley will create artefacts from a trench of slurried brick clay located in the centre of the gallery.

Based on WW1 archaeology artefacts and stories people share with him, the unfired artefacts will be documented and returned to the trench to disintegrate. After the residency they will only exist as photographs and in the memories of those who saw the work.

Hartley said;
“I’m interested in how war trenches reclaimed by the land over time, obscure the fact that they are sites of immense trauma and destruction.

“The stories attached to personal objects excavated from these war trenches, or possessions passed through the families of those who fought in them, become less defined over time. But whose emotional power and resonance remains. This project aims to discover new, personal stories of war and symbolically lay them to rest.”

To share a WW1 story or artefact with Paddy Hartley contact him on twitter @patrickihartley or by email paddyhartley@mac.com. Alternatively meet him in person at The Lowry Sat 1 April – Sun 14 May. For more information visit thelowry.com/exhibitions

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