Erical McCracken studied Intermedia at Edinburgh College of Art and Iceland University of the Arts. Her degree show was shortlisted for the Astaire Art Prize and won a New Graduate Award from the SSA. She was recently awarded a commission from Bipolar Edinburgh as part of the 2023 Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival.
As a trained actor and experienced playwright, performance remains integral to Erical’s
process-led, experimental, multidisciplinary practice. She values sustainability and resourcefulness, and works intuitively with easily accessible, found materials including cardboard, wood, fabric, waste plastic, and sound. She aims to elevate the status of these things by care and attention to detail, while conversely taking an immersive, ‘punk’ approach: deconstructing and often destroying found objects in order to transform them into raw material. Erical enjoys investigating a concept, then fitting that concept with the appropriate medium, whether it be a traditional art method or something less conventional. She considers art-making a process of translation.
Erical’s work for RSA New Contemporaries explores themes of malfunction and disconnection. Her life-size sculpture Side Effects represents the personal effects of depression, as well as the torn veil of sleep: one of the side effects of antidepressant medication.
