Artist Talk: Natural Materials
Using unconventional materials to enhance the conceptual meaning of you creative work
An Online Talk With Molly MacLeod On Tuesday 12th May 4-6pm GMT 2026
Join interdisciplinary artist Molly Macleod to explore the meaning of materials through a talk about her own creative practice.
Using found items from nature can allow us to connect to ecological themes on a deeper level. Explore how materials whose associations, physical properties, or cultural meanings do conceptual work beyond being the traditional ways to apply colour or create texture. Materials come with a meaning, they have cultural and social contexts we can use to increase the impactfulness of our work. Can the use of an unconventional material serve the concept of your work better than traditional ones?
Using unconventional materials can also add limitations to your usual creative process, allowing for imaginative solutions and new interpretations to rise to the surface.
Explore how Molly develops methods to use unconventional materials in her work, how she ensures longevity and collaborates with nature to create work that challenges the exploitation of our natural resources and rural landscapes whilst exploring the possibilities of our material future.
Join live or watch the recordings (Recordings will be available for three months until the 9th September 2026)
About Molly Macleod
Molly Macleod is a interdisciplinary artist based in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Taking inspiration from ecology and biology, collaborating on multi sensory projects in collaboration with scientists. Molly aims to reveal the unseen, hidden networks of nature to create art/science experiences that invite the audience to consider their impact on the environment and the future of our landscapes, questioning what place we hold as humans in the intricate ecological structures that surround us.
Her ongoing seaweed archiving project Drifft aims to document the changing seasons of Pembrokeshire seaweed habitat. Developing seaweed inspired creative workshops as a way to connect local communities with the fascinating coastal ecosystems and the environmental problems they face in the future.
Molly is graduate from MA Art & Science at Central Saint Martins and has a BA Hons in Interactive Arts. She has exhibited and run engagement projects in many galleries such as TATE Modern, Hypha Studios, Lethaby Gallery & Fabrica Gallery and in far flung remote locations such as; the depths of the Amazon Rainforest, in the shadow of a volcano on the Azorean Island of Pico and in the wilderness of the Pyrenean mountain range.
She has been artist in residence at The Pontio Centre, Labverde, Boia Festival, Roundabout LX and Olho De Boi Studios. She was the winner of the Art For Environment Residency award from UAL and was shortlisted for the MullenLowe NOVA Award and named the winner of the Digital Arts category of the Global Design Graduate Showcase 2021 from Artsthread & Gucci.
