A freelance curator who lives and works in Aberdeen, in the North East of Scotland. She has recently established her own curatorial platform Fertile Ground, where she works with a context, specific approach and focuses on new comissions. Projects will often involve collaboration across disciplines and attempts to remain sensitive to site – previous projects have taken place at a food bank, a library and an industrial estate.

She is currently working as one of the Shadow Curators for the Peacock Associates: Curatorial Fellowship Program, run by Peacock Visual Arts Aberdeen. Up and coming projects include: Climate reflections: Human Stories of Hope and Fear – in partnership with the Scottish Communities Climate Action Network, the Environmental Justice Foundation and supported by the Scottish Universities Insight Institute (November 2019) and States of Living; Architecture, Body, Object, with artist Zsa Zsa MacGregor (January 2020). Her current research areas include oil cultures, arts ecologies and feminist practice.

During her residence with Despina, Rachel researched the urgencies of the current socio–political context of Rio de Janeiro, primarily through oil. Her research positions oil as a substance that goes beyond material, into political and cultural environments. The stories told around oil are powerful; it promises modernity and wealth for all, it informs national and political identities and changes geographical boarders. These narratives often hide the reality for people, landscapes and more than human species such as the Guanabara Bay. Rachel used the residency to meet artists whose practice relate to oil; its political, social and ecological concerns.

More information
https://www.fertileground.info

Pictures Gallery (horizontal scrolling)
by Frederico Pellachin