Esther Castle
Winner of New Blood Art Emerging Art Prize 2024
Esther Castle’s work reflects on how society manages or marginalises bodies that don’t conform to traditional norms, using the metaphor of weeds in a garden to explore how non-normative bodies are treated as unruly or out of place. Her practice examines the interplay between care and control, drawing on her own experience of illness and disability to explore how deviations from societal norms are both challenged and embraced.
Through a combination of painting, sculpture, and installation, Castle creates layered, surreal worlds that blur the boundaries between the body and the natural world. Her anthropomorphic forms, inspired by how cancer cells were described to her as mysterious and uncontrolled growths, populate these imagined spaces, offering a sense of ambiguity and transformation.
Castle’s work invites reflection on resilience, transformation, and the complexity of the body. By questioning societal perceptions and creating immersive environments, she reimagines non-normative bodies as integral to broader dialogues about care, growth, and the value of difference.
