GALLERY

ARTIST STUDIO/SPACE

The One Hundred and Twenty Four 2025-2026

Recycled Hessian sacks, red satin, bullet perforations, ropeSculptural Drawing Installation

This work takes its title from conflict data recorded in 2024, when 124 active conflicts were documented globally. By 2026, that number has continued to rise, reflecting an increasingly volatile and fragmented geopolitical landscape.The One Hundred and Twenty Four responds to the escalation, scale, and persistence of contemporary conflict. Its material language—repurposed hessian, punctured surfaces, and binding forms—evokes both fragility and endurance, referencing the lived realities of displacement, loss, and survival.

The installation considers the far-reaching consequences of sustained violence: humanitarian crisis, forced migration, poverty, and generational trauma. It reflects on the erosion and, in some cases, erasure of cultural identity under prolonged conditions of instability.

Composed of individual and clustered elements, the work suggests both singular lives and collective experience. These forms gather and coexist within a shared space, emphasising interconnection and the cumulative weight of global crisis.At its core, the work is both a witness and a proposition—acknowledging the realities of conflict while asserting the continued possibility of empathy, compassion, and shared humanity.

WORK IN PROGRESS

Detail from”The One hundred and twenty four” – working title.

ARTIST STUDIO

Responding to conflict, mass human migration and humanitarian issues through the choice of materials . From upcycled, recycled, Gifted or Salvaged to explore fragility and strength, endurance and hope.

The One Hundred and Twenty Four 2025-2026 Work in progress, 2025–2026

Recycled Hessian sacks, red satin, bullet perforations, RopeSculptural Drawing Installation

“In the past thirty years over 2 million women and young girls have been r4ped, as part of a systematic use of sexual violence as a weapon of w4r during the ongoing genocide in Eastern Congo, perpetrated by Rwanda – supported by western powers .”@hopehealing.rdc”R4pe is used as a weapon of mass destruction. It is designed to destroy the “Social Bedrock- “The Mother”@teamcongo.rdc

The installation considers the far-reaching consequences of sustained violence: humanitarian crisis, forced migration, poverty, and generational trauma. It reflects on the erosion and, in some cases, erasure of cultural identity under prolonged conditions of instability.

Artist Bea Last

Hessian sacks / Red Satin/ Fragile Labels / Bullet holes

THE RED BAGS 2022-2026

Repurposed and recycled waterproof canvas/bamboo/bullet holes –

The Oxo Bargehouse Southbank London 2022

THE RED BAGS-Oxo Tower Southbank London UK

The Red BagsVariable dimensions depending on site. Originally comprising 300 handcrafted sculptural bags in 2022, the installation has since expanded to over 700 individually handcrafted elements by 2025.

THE RED BAGS : Gracefield Arts Centre Dumfries Scotland UK 2022

THE RED BAGS Gracefield Arts Centre Dumfries Scotland UK

THE RED BAGS – Gracefield Arts Centre Dumfries Scotland UK 2022

THE RED BAGS- Aesthetica Art Prize Finalist 2023

THE RED BAGS – YORK ART GALLERY ENGLAND UK 2023

THE RED BAGS-Laguna Arte Prize Venice 2024

THE RED BAGS – ARTE LAGUNA PRIZE VENICE FINALIST EXHIBITION 2024

THE RED BAGS-VAA OPEN Finalists Exhibition 2024

THE RED BAGS – VAA OPEN FINALISTS EXHIBITION 2024- The Minster Building Mincing lane London EC3 UK

WORK IN PROGRESS PROJECT 2 – DECONSTRUCTION The Red Bags Deconstucted 2025

THE RED BAGS DECONSTRUCTED

The effects of time, travel, and exposure — including sun-bleached surfaces and accumulated marks — have become embedded within the work itself, adding further layers of history and resonance. Part of the installation is currently entering a new phase of exploration through processes of deconstruction and transformation whilst the original Red Bag sculptural drawing continues to grow.

DESCENT OF MAN-SCULPTURAL DRAWING INSTALLATION 2016-2026

Following two years of continuous exhibition and travel, The Red Bags has now returned home. The work was first installed outdoors in the grounds of Gracefield Arts Centre in 2022, where it remained for four months before being reimagined for an interior setting at the OXO Tower Wharf, Southbank, London.In 2023, the installation was shortlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize and presented once again in an outdoor context within the grounds of York Art Gallery. In 2024, the work was shortlisted for the Arte Laguna Prize in Venice, while a smaller iteration was exhibited with Espacio Triple in Madrid during 2024/25.

DESCENT OF MAN 2016–2026Sculptural DrawingRecycled newspaper broadsheets (2016 & 2026) / Emulsion / Graphite / Gold trimIn 2016 – 2026

I created Descent of Man in response to the global issues dominating headlines at the time: Syria, Brexit, the Scottish Referendum, the rise of a U.S. presidential candidate, terrorism, corporate influence, and more.. Across the world, divisions were deepening—fueling anger, hatred, and unrest.Ten years on, in 2026, I return to re-work the Descent of Man for an upcoming exhibition in the Netherlands (2026) Dante’s Inferno: Contrapasso.

Themes of gluttony, greed, fraud, heresy, and wrath feel no less urgent today, as lies, corruption, conflict, and excess continue to shape our collective reality.: