Please upgrade your browser

For the best experience, you should upgrade your browser. Visit our accessibility page to view a list of supported browsers along with links to download the latest version.

Show RCA 2019

Becca May Collins

Show RCA work

Major project:

An Attempt to Define Hafod

The Hafod Uchtryd is a patch of land in Ceridigion, Wales, once a very popular destination for lovers of the picturesque. A tragic fire at the estate’s house led to the family eventually selling the land to the Forestry Commission, but not before felling the trees to sell them, or mining the land for metals. I first visited the estate in September, for a two week stay. It wasn’t quite cold yet and only the tops of the trees were turning yellow.

Following many visits, many onsite drawings, and many conversations, this series of images explores my own relationship with the site and the development of my sentimentality towards it. The reconstruction of the site in the images provide the viewer with access to the immaterial and the personal. By looking at the paradox of the picturesque, the dramatic history of the site and the current goings on, this project communicates the tragedies and the fortunes that give the Hafod Uchtryd it’s magical ‘sense of place’.

Info

  • Becca May Collins is an image-maker whose work explores the development of sentimentality towards a site. Concerned with highlighting emotional relationships with home and place in an increasingly globalised world, she works with specific sites over a prolonged period of time to create collections of imagery. Using the act of drawing on location to gain knowledge and understanding, she then reconstructs these scenes from memory in the studio; the images giving the viewer an insight into the intangible. Her images are warm and considerate, containing personal perspectives and gentle narratives, which are evidence of her extensive academic research into the relationship between the act of drawing and a ‘sense of place’.

     

    Becca has work in public and private collections, including the Royal Collection and is a New Contemporaries Artist for 2019. 

  • Previous degrees

  • The Drawing Year, Royal Drawing School, London, 2017; BA (Hons) Illustration, Plymouth University, 2015
  • Experiences

  • Visiting Lecturer, Kingston School of Art, London, 2019; Young Associates Faculty, Royal Drawing School, London, 2017–2019; Me Here to You There Across RCA Workshop Co-Lead (with Daisy Buckle), Royal College of Art, London, 2018; The Hafod Trust Residency, Wales, 2018; Dumfries House Residency, Scotland, 2018; Featured Artist at Brockwell Park, London, 2018
  • Exhibitions

  • Me Here to You There with Across RCA, Hockney Gallery, London, 2018; RDP with the Royal College of Art, Peckham Liberal Club, London, 2018; The Drawing Year End-of-Year Exhibition, Royal Drawing School, London, 2018; Best of the Drawing Year, Christies King Street, London, 2017; The Drawing Year Open Studios, Space Studios, London, 2017; SKETCH OPEN 2017 with Rabley Drawing Centre, 2017; SIX, Devonport Guildhall, Plymouth, 2016; Crickhowell Open, Crickhowell Art Gallery, Wales, 2016; On Paper, Mercer-Chance Gallery, London, 2016; Cold Kisses, Bruton Art Factory, Somerset, 2015; Hot '15 Degree Show, Plymouth University, Plymouth, 2015; Reportager Award, UWE, Bristol, 2015
  • Awards

  • New Contemporaries, 2019; The Plymouth Drawing Award, 2015
  • Sponsors

  • The Hafod Trust; The Royal Drawing School
Royal College of Art