Within Freya’s practice, textiles and sculpture come together to construct energetic, queer realities, finding connection through playful and tender worlds. Joy emanates from bendy, genderless figures, fostering connection with the viewer through soft, silly and sensual tactility. Textiles, often associated with comfort or sanctuary, have a tactility that is often found within domestic spaces. Freya seeks to redefine our preconceived ideas surrounding domesticity. By re-interpreting the traditional aesthetic of the medium, Freya is challenging the heteronormative stereotypes of the craft. Through the use of tufting, banner making and sculpture, Freya imagines their own queer escapist utopias, a snapshot of maximalist imaginaries, richly populated by figures captured in limbo between the fantastical and the grotesque, which emerge from the unspoken underbelly of the mundane to laugh at the state of the world. Freya is based at Paradise works and some of their recent commissions include Tate Collective, A Modest Show, and the exhibition “Belonging” at HOME’s Granada Foundation Gallery.
Freya is also involved in the artist collective
TV Babies
alongside Jenny Hanns and Charlotte Simmons. Together, they create films, participatory installations and sculptures which employ tongue-in-cheek humour to critique the social and political issues we face. Through the disruption of public space and bringing art outside of commercial galleries, TV Babies aim to divert from their profit-oriented nature and invite a more collaborative and community-focused approach.
Freya is currently based at Paradise Works, Salford.
EXHIBITIONS + PROJECTS
Friends of Dorothy X The Refuge, The Kimpton Hotel 2024
HOME Open Exhibition Castlefield Development Award Nominee, HOME Manchester 2024
NSFW, Smolensky Gallery 2023
Textile Junction, Electro Studios Project Space 2023
WERK RESIDENCY, Almeria, Spain 2023
I Extend My Arms, Tate Collective for LGBTQIA+ history month
Belonging with Underbank Studios @ HOME, Manchester and Stockport Art Gallery 2022/3
M+1 @PS Mirabel, Manchester 2022
Combine With Me @ Cass Art for A Modest Show, Manchester 2022
Food of the Gods for A Modest Show @ DezRez Projects, Manchester 2022
Hag @ Dez Rez Projects, Manchester 2022
Group Show @ Next Door Gallery, Manchester 2022
Bad Art presents Let Them Eat Fake @ The Bomb Factory, London 2022
Witchcraft @ Underbank Studios, Stockport 2021
Unlocked @ PS Mirabel, Manchester 2021
Cotton on presents ‘In Manchester’ @ Saul Haye Gallery, Manchester 2021
All Good Things Interactive Arts Final Show @ The Vertical Gallery (TV Babies) 2020
Millenialism @ Paradise Works for Manchester Contemporary (TV Babies) 2019
Union, School for crealtivity and Activism, 2019
Encore Sauna @ Islington Mill (TV Babies) 2018
Manchester School of Art Degree Show 2018 and winner of The Alumni Prize (TV Babies)
TV Babies present SWEAT @ Castlefield New Art Space 2018
