Emma Wood

After completing a degree in Fine Art at the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (2004-2007), I returned to South Aftrica (my country of birth) to volunteer on game reserves radio-tracking large predators. This reignited my love of wildlife and I came back to the UK to study conservation biology at the University of Exeter in Cornwall. I took all the fieldwork opportunities I could, working with gannets in Ireland, turtles in Northern Cyprus, and white-browed sparrow weavers in the Kalahari. These experiences have continued to feed into my art practice, especially the three seasons I spent collecting data for my PhD at Tswalu Kalahari Game Reserve; where daily encounters with ground squirrels, antelopes, and a wealth of birds and insects were interspersed with particularly magical moments of wild dogs in the garden, a very curious aardwolf, and nighttime walks with pangolins. In 2022 I rediscovered the joy of ceramics and learnt to throw at Cardiff Pottery Workshop Foundation. Since then I have been developing my throwing and sculpture skills focusing on capturing the behaviour of wildlife.