‘Her sculptures seethe with elemental forces as raw as any myth or cosmogony’

Simeon Nelson, sculptor

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Anna Candlin

Anna Candlin is a London-based sculptor whose practice investigates speculative post-humanist futures and entangled, porous ecological systems through the use of localised, low-carbon materials. Candlin graduated with a Master of Fine Arts with Distinction from the Slade School of Fine Art, where she began utilising speculative fiction as an integral research tool to construct narrative frameworks for her work. Rooted deeply in post-human philosophy, her sculptures challenge human exceptionalism by actively decentring the human from its perceived apex. She instead proposes a symbiotic hybridity where domestic technology, human artefacts, and more-than-human natural systems merge into single, deeply interconnected networks, exploring the transformative idea of hope as a necessary mechanism for survival within the Capitalocene.

Grounded in experimental ecological chemistry, Candlin’s methodology included intensive research at Birmingham SteamHouse, where she developed techniques for synthesising seaweed-based agar biopolymers reinforced with raw sheep’s wool. By juxtaposing these homemade bioplastics with salvaged electronics, industrial copper piping, garden detritus and bio-sourced eco-resin, Candlin creates tactile assemblages that function as future fossils.

Her practice has achieved significant recognition, including selection for the Bloomberg New Contemporaries shortlist, exhibiting at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, and being named a finalist for the CVAN Platform Graduate Award at MK Gallery. She was also shortlisted for the London Art Collective’s ArtEvol showcase. Candlin is a founding member of the eco-speculative artist collective SEED_2065, with whom she has exhibited at the Handbag Factory.

Her practice acts as a quiet but persuasive force for cultural empathy, transforming sites of consumer waste into tangible spaces of material repair and ecological hope.

Fruiting Bodies, 2026. 41cm x 79cm x 10cm. E-waste, discarded electrical wire, biomaterials, biodegradable resin, wallpaper paste.

Fruiting Bodies, 2026, detail

F-type Treesuit, c.2065, 2025. 175cm x 59cm x 63cm. Reclaimed dressmaker’s dummy and stand, catalpa branches, biomaterials, roots, pre-loved boots, cardboard, masking tape, glue, syringe tube, e-waste, pins, food pigments, discarded insulation tape, handmade bird’s nest, wool, grasses, earth.

F-type Treesuit, c.2065, detail

F-type Treesuit, c.2065, detail

Distributed Network, 2026. 103cm x 90cm x 67cm. Reclaimed copper piping, found metal, garden branches, cardboard-mâché, masking tape, glue, found tube, unfired clay, pigment.

Distributed Network, 2026, detail

Open Circuit, 2026. 18cm x 23cm x 14cm. Catalpa branch, cardboard-mâché, discarded copper pipe, scrap-store curtain tassels, old lawnmower cable, e-waste, eco-resin, glue

Open Circuit, 2026, detail

Open Circuit, 2026, detail

æn.θrə-bleɪd (transl. anthroblæd), 2024-5.  

Catalpa branches, biomaterials, cardboard-mâché, e-waste, discarded insulation material, cotton thread. 95cm x 45cm x 44cm

wʊdwɛb (transl. woodweb), 2025 (WIP)

Buddleia branches, biomaterials, cardboard-mâché, masking tape, glue.

180cm x 93cm x 77cm

Entangled System I, 2024-25. Biomaterials, catalpa branches, e-waste, discarded copper piping and copper plate, cardboard-mâché, masking tape, glue.

Dimensions vary.

Entangled System II, 2025

Catalpa twigs, cardboard, glue, e-waste, biomaterials, discarded copper piping,  aluminium etching plate, projector, video, sound

Dimensions vary

Entangled System II, 2025

Still from video GreenBeing

GreenScreen, 2025.

Catalpa branches, cardboard-mâché, masking tape, e-waste, biomaterials, wallpaper paste, glue.

120cm x 150cm x 3cm

wʊdwɛb (transl. woodweb), 2025 (WIP)

Buddleia branches, biomaterials, cardboard-mâché, masking tape, glue.

180cm x 93cm x 77cm

wʊdwɛb (transl. woodweb), 2025 (detail)

Entangled System III, 2024-5.

Tree branches, discarded insulation material, catalpa branches, discarded copper piping, biomaterials, e-waste, sound. Dimensions vary

Entangled System III, (detail)

GreenBeing, 2024

Latex, pigment, glue, chicken wire, spool, cardboard tube, metal pipe 

176cm x 91cm x 32cm