Dr Dawn Woolley, who gave a [c] Word talk on her practice in December 2025 for [c]CC Art School, has two exciting new projects lined up for May 2026.

Relics: Objects of Devotion for Contemporary Life exhibition by Dawn Woolley

Relics: Objects of Devotion for Contemporary Life opening 2 May at Salford Museum and Art Gallery. Artist reception from 12:30pm to 3pm in the North Gallery.

This exhibition brings together five of the artist’s series’, along with new work each scrutinising elements of consumption. ‘Celebrate’ looks at contradictory and troubling relationships to consumerism; ‘Life Cycle’ portrays different ages of the female consumer; ‘Lure’ considers the alluring power of products; ‘Relics’ inspects dominant gender stereotypes in branding; and ‘Host Figures [They Live]’ looks at how gender specific toys and sweets can influence behaviour from an early age. 

A series of new sculptures focus on consumer waste and environmental impact. As an artist Woolley is conscious that she adds objects to an already oversaturated world and looks for processes that won’t contribute to overabundance and waste. Collecting litter means that she reuses things that already exist while also reducing pollution. The exhibition includes a display of new Salford Relics, made from litter collected during her walks between Manchester Victoria train station and the gallery. They function as a type of portrait of the place, showing how it is used. Collecting litter means that Woolley can reuse things that already exist, while also reducing the pollution around the gallery. Reminiscent of devotional artefacts such as totems, janus figures, and votive candles, these Relics are not sacred objects that are preserved for centuries because they are culturally significant. They are relics of consumerism: our legacy for future generations. They also provide a sort of portrait of who inhabits the streets and how they use them.

Papier mâché ‘Storm Birds’ perch on abandoned shopping baskets and trolleys. Birds such as crows, magpies and seagulls appear in mythology and folklore from across the globe as symbols of war, wisdom, wealth, prosperity, death, rebirth, virtue, patience and protection. They are also opportunistic scavengers that have flourished in man-made environments characterised by concrete, pollution and litter. Perhaps due to their ability to straddle heaven and earth, birds have many mythic associations with weather, predicting flooding, causing cold weather and summoning thunderstorms. This variety of meanings make them ideal characters to carry mixed messages about equality, freedom of speech and environmental catastrophe – as they are often expressed by newspapers. The birds are accompanied by plastic banners and paintings decorated with text from The Waste Makers, written by Vance Packard in 1959. In the book Packard warns us of the perils of mass consumption. However, when read against the grain it becomes a handbook for the systematic exploitation of people and environments. 

Woolley is influenced by artworks throughout history including 17th century still life paintings, and works from the 19th and 20th centuries, some of which are included from the museum’s collections. Like Woolley’s artwork, 17th century still-life paintings are portraits of a consumer, described by the objects they owned. The exhibition runs until 30^th August.

It’s Just Banter: building resilience to objectifying content online — research symposium hosted by Dr Dawn Woolley of the Online Objectification research group and Getaway Girls

It’s Just Banter: building resilience to objectifying content online, Thursday 21 May from 12pm to 2pm UK-time on Zoom. Hosted by Dr Dawn Woolley and the Online Objectification team in conjunction with Getaway Girls. The project is funded by Include+ (EPSRC).

The Online Objectification team will share the processes and findings from the multidisciplinary community lead research project. Join us to hear about the findings and outcomes of the project. This event is suitable for academics, educators and community practitioners interested in supporting young people in building resilience in their online lives.

The online objectification project is an interdisciplinary project funded by Include+ (EPSRC) examining girls’ and young women’s experiences of viewing objectifying content online. Objectifying and demeaning content is listed as one of the top 10 harms experienced by girls and women in Ofcom’s Online Nation Report (2024). Viewing objectifying content can also have a negative impact on well-being especially in young women who are particularly susceptible, partly because of their exposure to gender stereotypes in mass media content (Appel & Weber, 2017).

This project centres the voices, experiences and creativity of girls and young women, values that are at the heart of Getaway Girls, our community partner. Through interviews and creative workshops with girls and young women at Getaway Girls we co-devised responses and actions that could empower users to report objectifying content and support other girls and women online, in order to increase digital equity.

Thanks to the participants, Flavia Docherty (CEO) and the youth workers at Getaway Girls for making this project possible and to Paulette Morris, Denetta D3 Copeland and Marcia Brown for leading creative workshops with participants. Thanks also to Include+ for funding this project. Include+ is a network exploring how social and digital environments can be built, shaped and sustained to enable all people to thrive. Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

This is a free online event, however booking your place is kindly requested through Eventbrite.