Eleanor Lakelin

This month we visit artist Eleanor Lakelin in her Deptford Studio as she nears completion of a piece we have commissioned for Reading Museum through our Rapid Response Fund. Entitled Oh beautiful world!, it commemorates Reading Gaol’s most famous inmate, Oscar Wilde and has been carved using wood from an avenue of diseased chestnut trees that would have shaded the gaol when Wilde was incarcerated there. Here she discusses the fascinating properties of wood, being inspired by cave paintings and constantly pushing the form of her pieces.