The RWA invited artists to respond to its themes and create pieces designed to be displayed on the street. As the Academy notes, Found Cities, Lost Objects ‘encourages us to view the city through contemporary art, acknowledging the privileges which can mean we feel free to roam while considering the boundaries which may curb our experiences as women’. It’s about the relationship between art, artist, and audiences, as well as shared or partly shared experiences, and wanting to encourage conversations that will trigger an exchange of ‘observations, memories, and imaginings, to give us all a greater sense of ownership and belonging.’ 

After lots of wonderful entries were submitted, the three local artists that Himid selected to take on the commission were Liz Naden, Annie Clay and Lucy J Turner. Liz Naden is an artist born in Nottingham who moved to Bristol five years ago; while having realised a lot of her work through sculpture, it’s come to evolve ‘to be quite playful and fun’ and expand across mediums. Annie Clay is an artist who started her creative career in printed textile design – but feeling as though she’d hit a wall within the industry, sought more freedom, which led her to her artistic practice today. Lucy J Turner is also based in Bristol, and as an artist and digital illustrator, came to find a way to heal trauma through her creativity after being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. 

Bringing each artists’ work to the street in poster format was a way to extend the conversations the exhibition intended to create and take them beyond the gallery walls. By centring on local female artists’ experiences of Bristol and their lives within the city, it both broadens accessibility and sharpens nuance around the concepts explored in the curated works at the RWA. 

Speaking about her artwork selected for display, Liz Naden described the process of its creation, which was intrinsically linked to Bristol’s physical landscape: ‘I painted a large portable mural in bright and bold colours, evoking a sense of joy and security. I wheeled it from Brislington to the centre of Bristol, via Temple Meads and Stokes Croft, with photographer Genoveva Arteaga. She helped to photograph the piece while it was on its journey, against backdrops that contrasted with the mural’s aesthetic. The contrast was crucial to highlight the positive effect art can have in certain areas that may feel unsafe, particularly for women.’ 

Also thinking about how art can work within the city around it, Annie Clay said, she ‘wanted the opportunity to create a piece reflecting on life as a mother in my home city of Bristol. I’d been playing with collaging found objects onto paintings, but I wanted to involve my daughter in collecting (one of her favourite things to do!) and make it an inter-generational reflective piece… I feel proud to have created a piece within the limited hours I have as a working mum, that hopefully expresses and reflects the intensity of the role of mother and parent in the changing city today. The hope and fears and joys and questions all interplay… I hope people in the city enjoy seeing and interacting with it too.’ 

With her intention to ‘to celebrate the Black body in striking, colourful, arresting art that draws the eye and occupies space’, Lucy J Turner explained how she derived her inspiration for her artwork from her approach to life in Bristol: ‘Cities can be magical places, full of culture, community, art, electricity, vibrancy and fun. They can help you find your tribe and make you feel less alone. They can foster feelings of inclusion and blow away the loneliness. But all that depends on who you ask, cities can also add to feelings of loneliness and isolation. They can create dark places where violence and assault thrive. Especially for women… My piece explores and highlights the relationships between Black women living in the city and how integral they are to each other. Even now, living in a city as diverse as Bristol, it still remains incredibly segregated and in order to survive, Black women have built communities within the city. The themes of joy and laughter and lightness come to mind because that’s what we provide each other.’