Castlefield Gallery Associates Spotlight: Ela Skorska
Posted on 3 June 2025
This month we have asked Ela Skorska to contribute to our Castlefield Gallery Associates Spotlight series, in which current Castlefield Gallery Associates share their thoughts on what the programme offers and how it has been useful for them.
Can you tell us a little bit about your practice?
I am currently based in the Peak District, and I am a recent graduate with a first-class honors BA in Photography at the Manchester School of Art.
I am a photographer and multidisciplinary visual artist who works predominantly with analogue cameras.
My practice also incorporates sculpture, painting, and Super 8 as an aftereffect of participating in an Exchange Program where I studied Fine Arts for a year at UCLM in Cuenca, Spain. This experience resulted in formulating a versatile practice due to developing a passion for Fine Arts, film art and experimental cinema.
My work investigates the interplay of light and shadow, focused on abstraction and geometrical shapes created by collaborating with chance. My analogue approach is embedded in my love for the process, tangible and the wabi-sabi approach which pushes me to reframe the imperfections and unknown as something that should be celebrated and cherished. It is a bit of a paradox. As someone who prefers to control the process, I am simultaneously forced to let go of it. Analogue will take care of that. I am interested in textures, details, and the overlooked beauty that resides in the world waiting to be discovered, to be noticed and appreciated for its elementary beauty.
Like an aesthetic detective, I look for my images and compositions in the structures of the City, which play a significant role in my work, delivering me an ever-inspiring playground for exploration and creativity expressed through a brutalist perspective rooted in myupbringing in Poland.
My inspirations come from the Czechoslovakian photographic avant-garde of 1920-1940 – especially Jaroslav Rössler. Other influences include Daido Moriyama, László Moholy-Nagy, John Blackemore, Constructivism in all forms, sculptors like Naum Gabo, Richard Serra and Mary Martin’s relief sculptures to name a few.
In my latest project, Congruence (2023 – ongoing), I have been exploring the existence of my analogue photography in the modern world.
Contemplating the longevity of my images being ‘stuck’ in the constraints of the frame and the sculptural properties of my brutalism-inspired images, I analyze a photograph as a 3D object, its potential to exist as one and proceed to liberate it through interdisciplinary methods ranging from Fine Art processes like painting and sculpture to 3D modelling and printing, working with concrete, perspex, magnets and more.
In November 2024, I was awarded DYCP with an ambition to develop knowledge of sculpture and thus evolve my latest idea.
Through gaining that expertise and exploration of materials, I want to expand my concept of photography as an object/sculpture, taking on various forms, some as interactive art, to reach the audience who can’t experience art in the usual ways and allow the viewer not just to be an observer but to be an active contributor.
How did you hear about Castlefield Gallery Associates and why did you want to join?
During my studies for a Photography BA degree at Manchester School of Art, one of my tutors was Thomas Dukes, who was involved with Castlefield Gallery at the time. I believe he was my first contact with the gallery, but I also recall it being mentioned in the lectures.
In my third year, I applied for a funded membership, which I secured. Following that, I was awarded membership as one of my awards for my degree show project and another as part of Short Supply’s MADE IT exhibition. And just like that, I have been an associate for two years now with another year ahead and, I hope, more to come.
The reason I was continually seeking to join the program is that I am aware that the associate scheme would be very useful for an emerging artist like myself, with a network of artists to build relationships with, opportunities, exhibitions and many valuable talks and workshops which I have been attending regularly since starting my membership.
What are you looking forward to most about your coming year’s membership?
I am looking forward to attending an advisory session to discuss my work with a professional and get feedback on my work and the direction it is taking.
I am also excited to see what open calls/exhibition opportunities the gallery has planned for 2025 and I hope to be able to participate.
Links
Website
elaskorska.comImages
Banner:
- Ela Skorska, Astraction in Light, 2023. Image courtesy of the artist.
From left to right, top to bottom:
- Ela Skorska, from project CONGRUENCE (photography as sculpture), 2023 – ongoing. Image courtesy of the artist.
- Ela Skorska, Street Geomentry, 2024. Image courtesy of the artist.
- Ela Skorska, Configuration, 2024. Image courtesy of the artist.
- Ela Skorska.
