Jenny Pope’s work in Dear Earth at Kirkcaldy Galleries | Photography © Lydia Smith
Jenny Pope
Jenny Pope’s tools are not useable in the way that traditional tools might be. They can’t fix physical problems or be used to mend and make things. Instead, they are designed to be used for emotional reassurance and to help mend and make sense of thoughts and feelings
Crafted from human-made rubbish found washed up by the tide, they connect the eco-anxiety that climate crisis can generate to the physical world, with titles that hint to their possible use.
Biography
Jenny Pope is an Edinburgh based artist, with a BA in Ceramics and an MA in Sculpture from Edinburgh College of Art. She creates sculptures and installations using found and recycled materials playfully responding to challenging contemporary issues, creating space for reflection which question our responses to uncertainty. Her current focus is her Creative Scotland Individual funded art/citizen science project in Shoogly Holm, Orkney, part of her ongoing practice-based research centering on a commitment to climate activism in the face of the current emergency.
Pope exhibits widely in the UK, including recent projects Crisisium humanitarus, St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh (2024); Material Truths, Royal Society Sculptors, Scarborough (2024); SSA 130 Years Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh (2022); and residencies with Art Walk Porty (2019-21 and 2023). She has received professional development awards including VACMA and the John Muir Open, and had international residencies in Seville and Almeria, Spain. Pope is a professional member of Scottish Society of Artists and is elected to the Royal British Society of Sculptors.
Pope has had extensive experience working in mental health, latterly as a coach and mentor with creative people and as co-lead with the SSA mentoring programme.