Born and raised in Cumbria, now living and working in West Yorkshire, Richards is heavily influenced by the outdoors and her experiences both traversing and being part of it.
Through walking, Richards’ practice explores how geographical spaces and those who travelled them throughout history have changed, who is allowed to travel them now, how we form relationships with them, and the importance of moving through spaces to be able to do so.
Walking is vital to the practice. Whilst the works produced and curated post walk are a valuable element of her practice, none of them could exist without the true work that is the walk itself. Richards uses walking to explore her personal relationship to places and what external factors impact these relationships; embedded in this is an interest in collective memory in relation to place and land. This intertwines with the exploration of land access, rights of way and the politics of walking.
Isobel Richards 