Latest Shape collaboration: Rachel Carney was shortlisted for the Adam Reynolds Award in 2024.

Find out more about the ARA Check out all Artist Profiles

Artist Statement: Rachel Carney is a poet, creative writing tutor and artist, based in Cardiff. Her debut poetry collection Octopus Mind (Seren Books) explores themes of perception, creativity, and neurodiversity, and was selected as one of The Guardian’s Best Poetry Books of 2023.

Rachel recently completed a PhD funded by the South, West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership. Her research examines how ekphrastic poetry (poetry written in response to art) can help visitors to engage with art in museums. It involved creating an interactive display that took place at National Museum Cardiff, inviting visitors to respond to the paintings in the gallery, and to each other’s words, through poetry.

Her creative practice extends and builds upon this interaction between poetry and visual art through meta-ekphrasis and interactive ekphrasis. Her work exists in many different forms, including page-poetry, collage poetry, poetry-objects and performance poetry.

Interactive poetry display at National Museum Cardiff, 2022

Check out Rachel's website

---

Banner Image: Photograph of two small white painted square canvases with fragment of faces and bodies, hung on a woven web made of white woollen string. It is installed in a garden area with leafy vegetation and the edge of a brick building in the background.