This year, four artists have been awarded a Yorkshire Artspace Microgrant, receiving up to £500 to develop their practice & increase public access & engagement with their work.

Heliya Badakhshan is one of the recipients of a 2016 Microgrant, which form part of the city-wide Year of Making celebrations aiming to promote Sheffield as a city of makers.

"My work is based on idea of a non-form. They are abstract fabrications that oscillate around something that is identifiable, something that alludes to familiarity but remains out of reach. They are not a narrative of real objects but point to the play between the artificial and natural world. They pivot around the material is used.

The process is based on knowing these elements and also being surprise by them. It is in the development and how I use the material that the sculpture is formed. The skin of the object is very important to me, as it can reveal or hide the process. It represents how shape is held together, where the viewer is in contact with the object. I use forms and colour to create seduction and sensitivity to our feelings.

In my new work I’m trying to develop new shapes that involves new material. I am hoping to use clay as the base and main material for my sculpture alongside resin and metal. I have never worked with clay and hoping with the help of some artists at Yorkshire art space, discover and learn about this old ancient material."

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