Walter Bailey's work is founded in a commitment to exploring the intersection of the human and the more than human realms. His fascination with the myriad forms of the natural world continues to inform his practice.  

After a childhood in Sunderland and a family life often as turbulent and unpredictable as the North Sea, Bailey moved South and chose to explore tenderness and joy through his work creating forms redolent of hope and a gratitude for life; a personal archaeology of artefacts celebrating interspecies survival and honouring life’s diversity. 

Bailey says “my relationship with living cycles and systems has continually informed my work and I have found joy in deepening my relationship with the more than human. From the roots to leaf tips the forest whispers and forms emerge, shaping memories of ancestral cross species relationships as old as life itself, the underlying chatter even older, deeply embedded in the foundation of matter.

The sculptures I make flip, twist and are transmuted over time, some settle and embody a single idea others remain disquietingly unresolved. It’s often the unsettled works that are the most successful. This small body of work is a personal response to a period of time when hidden voices are being heard, as we come to recognise how critical biodiversity and cultural diversity are to our survival.

Recent scientific discoveries are uncovering countless methods of species and cross species communication revealing what indigenous cultures have always known, that the resilience of life on earth is founded in relationship, rich in diversity and mutuality, our identities and natural environments intricately intertwined.”