Lucy Beech

Lucy Beech is an artist whose practice revolves around collaboration and blends the rhythms of poetry and narrative with investigative filmmaking and scientific research. Focusing on themes of intimacy, infrastructure and contemporary understandings of the ways bodies and technologies shape one another, recent work navigates the meanings and potentials of waste in various sociocultural settings and the fragile transitions of ecosystems in the midst of repair.

HOW DOES YOUR SUBMITTED WORK RESPOND TO THE CIRCA 20:25 MANIFESTO?
Oracle documents the exposure of an artificial sand dune to a five hour storm simulation. Set to the rhythm of Lyra Pramuk’s music the storm unfolds in a concrete wave channel. This vital practice is a rehearsal in coastal protection that aims to counter the impact of rising sea levels and increased storm activity on shoreline infrastructure. The artificial wave is eroded into the dune creating an unsparing topography of human creation and its own destruction. “At one point a single drop of water falls seemingly without end until it splashes down back into an open eye: a tear returned” (Lesley Moon).

IF AWARDED THE £30,000 CIRCA PRIZE, WHAT 10-MINUTE WORK WOULD YOU CREATE – AND HOW WOULD IT EMBODY THE SPIRIT OF REFUGIA?
Oscillating between a poem, a music film, and a speculative fiction, this new work draws inspiration from conservation practices such as phytomining, rewilding and bioremediation, transforming invisible restorative processes into a poetic and psychedelic experience. Focusing heavily on architectural sound design the project echoes the extreme scales of remediation, adopting technologies that are integral infrastructure to these hidden worlds of renewal; particle accelerated radiation microscopy, robot cameras and MRI which are used to capture the interior worlds of organisms. Borrowing technologies that support ecosystems to regenerate, the film experiments with reparative processes and embodies the resiliance of ecosystems as they heal.

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Funding for the CIRCA PRIZE is generated entirely by the #CIRCAECONOMY, a circular model that reinvests proceeds from affordable art sold on CIRCA.ART into new public art commissions, charitable causes, art education and prizes. Since launching in 2020, the initiative has raised over £1 Million, placing artists and communities at the centre of an economy that continually reinvests in the future of art and culture.

The CIRCA PRIZE 2025 winners will be revealed LIVE in Piccadilly Circus on Monday 13 October, with a special 30-minute award ceremony starting at 20:00 BST. Don’t miss it!