UNKNOWN UNKNOWNS (2020) is a project bringing together patient ambassadors for Blood Cancer UK and stem cell researchers working at the Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre. Through a series of stop-motion animation workshops held via Zoom, participants developed hand-cut animation sequences exploring their experiences of ‘the unknown’ in relation to living with blood cancer, the challenges of research and the global uncertainties of Covid-19. Animation materials included paper, velvet and issues of National Geographic published in 1960, the year Blood Cancer UK officially became a charity.
Commissioned by the Wellcome - MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute as part of its Public Engagement programme, project outcomes include an animated film featuring participants’ stop-motion sequences (Futuramic Unknown, 2020) and an installation for the Jeffery Cheah Biomedical Center at Cambridge Biomedical Campus (The Night the Mountains Moved, 2020).
Anna works across a wide range of media including film, sound, installation, performance and action-based interventions. Trained as a theatre director and playwright, the lived-experience is an overarching theme in her work, which responds to social structures, personal histories and specific sites. Anna’s practice is led by an ongoing exploration of liveness and presence, and her process is often collaborative - involving interdisciplinary exchanges with other artists, researchers, academics and community groups. Her primary materials include created and found imagery, sound and video, as well as fabricated objects and architectures.
Anna is supported by Arts Council England and her work is shown in public spaces, museums, galleries and theatres including Kettle’s Yard, the British Museum, HOME Manchester, Fermynwoods Contemporary Art, UCL, the Roundhouse, Battersea Art Centre and Cambridge Junction, where she is currently an associate artist. Recent works include large-scale collage installations, outdoor public art commissions, and single-channel videos.