Practitioner in Residence: Nicole Mollett

Nicole Mollett is a socially engaged artist whose primary medium is drawing. Her wider practice includes sculpture, performance and public art. 

Her drawings are visually rich in detail and often celebrate alternative histories and forgotten places. She draws imagined realities, which are compositions using images from early encyclopaedias together with archival prints, photographs and found objects. 

Nicole is interested in museums, public spaces and the role cultural heritage plays within communities. 

She has worked on several participatory regeneration projects across the UK, and promotes a more democratic, collaborative and inclusive approach to creating art. 

Nicole was practitioner in residence at Royal Museums Greenwich during our Season of Drawings (April - June 2023) – a programme of events inspired by our exhibition The Van de Veldes: Greenwich, Art and the Sea.

During her residency at Royal Museums Greenwich, Nicole investigated our complex relationship with water and the sea.  

“I looked at the importance water has in shaping our lives and society, and how access to water and our ability to navigate the oceans has played a key role in civilisations globally,” she says. 

In addition to running free public workshops, Nicole created a series of pieces in response to the work of the Dutch marine artists, Willem van de Velde the Elder and his son Willem van de Velde the Younger. “I looked at how the artists used ink to describe the waves, and observed how they described human behaviour at sea,” she explains. 

Her residency culminated with the creation of a panoramic seascape drawing, which features drawings of ‘melting ships’ – vessels covered with the forms of seafarers and mythical creatures. 

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Images courtesy of Nicole Mollett.