Rose Garrard

Rose Garrard (born 21 September 1946, Bewdley, Worcestershire, England) is an installation, video and performance artist, sculptor and author. Garrard's works have been exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Tate Gallery, the British Council maintained Great Britain pavilion at the 1984 Venice Biennale, and national galleries in Austria and Canada.

Early life and education Rose Garrard was born in Bewdley, Worcestershire, her family moving to Malvern when she was three months old. For many years, her mother was the proprietor of Collector’s Corner, an antique shop in Malvern. Her father who combined life as an artist with a career as a soldier, ran the Middle East College of Art in the Sahara Desert after the Second World War to rehabilitate officers to civilian life, receiving the MBE in 1953.

Garrard received her foundation qualification for Art & Design from Stourbridge College of Art in 1965. Garrard went on to achieve a first-class Honours degree in Sculpture from Birmingham School of Art in 1969, before receiving a Higher Diploma in Sculpture from Chelsea College of Arts in 1970. Garrard received a scholarship from the British Council/French Government to attend the Ecole de Beaux Arts, Paris, from 1970 to 1971, where she won the Prix d'Honneur Gold Medal for Sculpture in 1971.

Early artistic career Since the late 1960s, Garrard's artistic practice has been engaged with ideas concerning gender, identity, status and power, binding together personal experiences and historical references. sculptures of translucent Perspex-shrouded female figures at venues including Serpentine Gallery. Its cost of £50,000 was funded by the Malvern Hills District Council, public subscription, and support from by West Midlands Arts, Severn Trent Water, and local businesses. Other works include the drinking spout, Malvhina, which was unveiled on 4 September 1998, the Hand of Peace war memorial, a sculpture in Portland stone located in the Barnards Green suburb of Malvern, Women's Work 1998, in Bilston, Wolverhampton, England, created in bronze, Welsh slate, and brick, and the Cascade Gates 2007, in welded steel at the Clock Tower Well Room in North Malvern.

Notable artworks "Models Triptych" (1982 – 83), New Hall Art Collection, Murray Edwards College "Talisman: The Wooden Box From Her Father" (1988), Victoria & Albert Museum

Solo exhibitions Incidents in a Garden, Acme Gallery, 1977 Surveillance, International Performance Symposium, 1980 The Fall, Women Live, Arnolfini, 1982 Frames of Mind, Kettles Yard, 1983 Between Ourselves, Ikon Gallery, 1984 Openings, Laing Art Gallery, 1985 Casting Room One, Third Generation of Women Sculptors, Canterbury Festival, 1986 Redressing the Balance, Neue Gesellschaft fur bildende Kunst, 1987 Talisman, Louise Hallett Gallery, 1988 Calgary Conversation, live-art residency, New Art Gallery Calgary, 1991 Disclosing Dialogues, live-art residency, Vancouver Art Gallery, 1992 Archiving my own History, documentation of works 1969 > 1994, Cornerhouse, 1994 Rose Garrard: Arena for Conversation, South London Gallery, 1994

Historian and author Garrard became heavily involved with the restoration of the local springs and the history of Malvern, and her research carried out in 2006 demonstrated for the first time that well dressing has been part of the tradition in the Malvern area since the 12th and 13th centuries. In 2001, she began organising the well dressing campaign in Malvern, which has become an annual event with more than 28 wells being dressed.

Personal life After meeting at Birmingham School of Art in 1966 and forming a friendship, Garrard married fellow artist Kerry Trengrove at Wood Green Register Office in 1969. The couple separated in 1987 before divorcing in 1989.

Publications Malvern: Hill of Fountains – Ancient Origins, Beliefs and Superstitions surrounding Wells and Well Dressing (2006) Aspect Design Donkeys’ Years on the Malvern Hills (2008), Aspect Design, A Malvern Treasury (2010), Aspect Design, archiving my own history : documentation of works, 1969–1994 (1994), Cornerhouse, Manchester, , , Talisman (1988), Louise Hallett Gallery, 1988. , , Redressing the balance (1987), Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst, Berlin.