My name is Ashleigh Beattie and I am a Zimbabwean visual artist based in Manchester. My practice spans installation, drawing, print and sculpture. At the heart of my practice, I make work about what it means to inhabit and belong to the land. 

 

As a migrant living in the African diaspora, I am interested in the legacy of colonialism, particularly in Southern Africa, and its impact on the land and its people both historically and contemporarily. My work seeks to examine and reveal the forgotten histories and shared connections between people and place.

My installations frequently make use of found objects and materials such as copper pipes and clay bricks that are connected to a specific site. These materials are embedded with shared meaning and memories, which I draw out as a key aspect of my art. For instance, the installation The Things In-between (2026) employs carefully selected objects to evoke the shared memories and history that link South Manchester to Zambia, formerly known as Northern Rhodesia.

 

The process of gathering this material is also integral to my work. Whether it involves physically extracting clay from my garden for the installation Cracked Earth (2026) or using basic printing techniques such as cyanotypes for their historical significance to colonialism, I am interested in how through making, these forgotten histories can be retold in a visually sensitive way.

 

My work aims to speak on not only a local level but a global one, bringing into question how we belong and care for the places we inhabit.