THE internationally acclaimed artist, Susan Stockwell, has created the largest installation to have ever been commissioned by the Stratford-upon-Avon based Royal Shakespeare Company.

This suspended sail installation took over the public spaces of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre earlier this month and is now open to the public alongside an exhibition of new art works by the same artist in the RSC exhibition space, the PACCAR Room, through to September.

Susan Stockwell has been Artist in Residence at the RSC since September last year, immersing herself within all areas of the theatre. The installation and exhibition are inspired by the forthcoming summer season productions of Othello and The Merchant of Venice, drawing on the themes of trade, identity and diversity.

Susan’s practice is concerned with ecology, politics, mapping, trade and global commerce for which she has a highly regarded reputation for innovative and exciting art works.

She said of her residency and exhibition: “Working as Artist in Residence at the RSC is insightful, inspirational and enjoyable. Witnessing the inside workings of the organisation is revealing a very collaborative process, different to the visual artists’ practice which tends to be more solitary.

"The support I am receiving during this residency is enabling me to realise a large, ambitious installation in the theatre foyers. It is a great opportunity to push my work further and explore Shakespeare’s poetry to make new art which I hope will surprise and wonder theatre visitors.”

In the PACCAR Room she is exploring the themes of the plays through art works that combine currency, drawings and maps. Works in this space include a quilt to honour Shakespeare, which follows a series of quilts she has created made from textile and reconfigured maps including one for Gandhi and Florence Nightingale.

Following on from Susan’s inter-active installation ‘Sail Away’ in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall (2014), she will install a flotilla of small boats made out of paper, money, maps and text.

She uses materials from the everyday and the domestic, from manufacturing and industry, from toilet tissue on an industrial scale (Paper Installation, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, 1994) to recycled computer components (Flood, York, 2010) and paper currency from a variety of countries with exacting methodologies that include a high level of precision and detail.

Her work has been shown extensively in the UK and abroad, including the Victoria & Albert Museum (2001, 2008, 2010), Shenghua Art Centre, China (2006), B-Side Ecology, Taipei (2008), Art League of Houston, Houston, USA (2009), The Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York, USA (2010), Tate Modern, London (2013), Manchester City Art Gallery (2012), London Print Studio (2012) and regular solo exhibitions at Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, London. Her work is in public and private collections around the world.