Casting is often a mysterious process. Creating a mould, an imprint, a replica of something, and remaking it in a new material. There are so many moments the whole thing can go wrong. Leaky plaster. Air bubbles. Cracks. It’s offputting and difficult to get your head around. As a sculptural method, it’s often confined to specialist university teaching and facilities, not accessible beyond these limitations. But sometimes, it’s exactly the right thing to capture a moment. Trap something in...

In 1938, art critic Cyril Connolly said “there is no more sombre enemy to good art than the pram in the hall.” It almost seems as if, even now, the art world locks artist-parents out, prevented from making any work at all in case it’s “bad”. In 2022, art critic and curator Hettie Judah published a book called How Not to Exclude Artist Mothers (and other parents…). This was a watershed moment. Judah explained plainly and clearly that the art world is purposefully organised to exclude those...

I’m Ellie Barrett, a sculptor, researcher, writer, artist-mother and studio holder at Good Things. In 2025, I led a house commissioned project, running a playgroup for under 5s and their parents or carers called “Everyday Play”. When I had my daughter Nora in 2021, I very quickly realised I wouldn’t be able to make art in the way I’d been used to my whole career as an artist. 8 hour uninterrupted days in the studio were suddenly impossible. I needed to find a new way of making work which...