Freya Wysocki

Freya is based in Manchester and works across textiles, sculpture, and installation, with a visual arts practice that uses humour and absurdity to encourage play. Looking through an uncanny and playfully queer lens, they are often influenced by cartoons, folklore and mundane everyday events. With an off-kilter sense of urgency, Freya uses materials such as drawing, papier mache and textiles to build these high octane terrains.

During my time in Iceland, I dwelled on the microscopic, imagining the worlds that live so close to us, but are just out of sight. Through a practice of world building I explored the liminal spaces where borders blur, buckle and drift, taking inspiration from Icelandic Folklore, Ursula K Le Guin’s maps, Petra’s Stone museum and the never ending fields of Icelandic moss.

I developed my thinking around what we can learn from other species, and how they can guide us towards a more symbiotic future. I constructed a narrative through experimenting with various techniques such as tapestry weaving, wood turning, metal work, mono-printing and ceramics, building an army of guardians of this tiny world.

I also facilitated a workshop to create a communal flag for the class of May ‘26, where the fellow residents created self portraits as fish. I wanted to leave something behind, to say thank you to everyone at Fish Factory for being so generous with their time and space.

Profile photo by Esther Linder