SCAF Artist Talk Series 2025 - Part 2

Artist Talk: Julie Bancroft — Emerging Artist Award Finalist 2025

The second artist talk of last year’s Emerging Artist Award at the Scott Creative Arts Foundation featured textile and mixed‑media artist Julie Bancroft, one of the programme’s ten finalists. Led by curator Lydia Poole, the conversation offered a thoughtful insight into Bancroft’s reflective practice, shaped by themes of healing, time and natural transformation. Readers can also enjoy a selection of short clips within this post, capturing moments from the discussion and offering a glimpse into the atmosphere of the event.

Exploring Time, Healing and Material

Bancroft opened the talk by describing how her practice developed during her fine art textiles degree, where she explored trauma, grief and the slow movement toward healing. She spoke about the grounding nature of repetitive, meditative actions such as hand‑stitching, explaining that her work is less about the passage of time and more about what we choose to do with it. As she put it, “the whole piece is about being very grounded… the things that bring about healing.”

Working with Natural Processes

A central feature of Bancroft’s finalist piece was her decision to partially bury the textile in her allotment, allowing soil, moisture and microorganisms to shape the work. She described this as a collaboration with the natural world, where chance becomes part of the creative process. The marks left by insects, minerals and weather form a quiet record of transformation. “Everything’s decaying over time but that is also positive in terms of the cycle,” she reflected, highlighting her interest in regeneration as much as erosion.

Layers, Scars and the Record of Experience

Throughout the conversation, Bancroft returned to the idea of layering, both materially and emotionally. Stitching, for her, is a way of recording experience, acknowledging what has happened without concealing it. She noted that “every single thing you do to it is recorded in the material,” describing how the work holds visible traces of repair, change and survival. These layered marks echo the complexities of healing, where scars remain present but become part of a larger whole.

Open‑Ended Making

When asked how she knows a work is finished, she described an intuitive process shaped by time and reflection. She spoke about living with the piece, returning to it only when she felt compelled to act, and stopping when that impulse faded. “I didn’t have a plan… I just had to live with it until I didn’t get the urge to do something to it,” she said. She even suggested the work may continue evolving, hinting that she might bury it again in the future.

Material Curiosity Beyond Textiles

The talk also explored Bancroft’s ceramic experiments, which mirror the sensibilities of her textile work. She described tearing, wrapping and firing clay pieces that sometimes collapsed or disintegrated, outcomes she welcomed as part of the material’s natural behaviour. “I like things at different points of their breaking,” she explained, revealing a consistent curiosity about fragility, unpredictability and the beauty of materials in transition.

Mapping, Contours and Intuitive Mark‑Making

Audience members noted the cartographic quality of her stitched motifs, which resemble contour lines or geological patterns. Bancroft explained that these forms emerged intuitively from natural shapes she had studied rather than from a deliberate intention to map. Even so, the resemblance felt fitting, given her interest in marking time, tracing experience and acknowledging the landscapes, internal and external, that shape us.

Documenting Process Through Film

As part of the Emerging Artist Award, finalists were invited to create short process videos, and Bancroft embraced this wholeheartedly. Drawing on her background in film and media, she spoke about the importance of documenting the unseen labour behind the work. “What you see is just the end, the key is the process,” she said, emphasising the importance of the often unseen, slow, tactile journey that leads to the final piece.

Healing for Artist and Audience

Toward the end of the talk, Bancroft reflected on the personal significance of the work. While viewers may connect with its themes of mending and resilience, the making process also held meaning for her own journey. “It’s been part of my own healing in the last couple of years,” she shared, describing how the piece became a space to process experience and acknowledge the layers that shape a life.

Community and Connection Through the Award

The discussion closed with reflections on the value of the Emerging Artist Award programme. Bancroft spoke warmly about the sense of community it fostered and the importance of having a supportive network during the early stages of an artistic career. “It’s really nice to work on a brief knowing someone is going to see it,” she said. Her talk offered a rich insight into a practice shaped by sensitivity, curiosity and a deep respect for the quiet processes of transformation.