Bio:
Molly Astley is an artist and musician living and working in south east London.
Guided by a deep exploration of sensory experience and vibrational relations, her work is centred on the porous boundary between body and environment. Through sound, performance, drawing and text, she explores the connections between personal, environmental and collective health; attuning to both the ephemeral (memory, sensation, image, voice) and the tangible (body, stone, river, branch) in close engagements with specific sites. Shaped by somatic investigation of the vibrational networks that envelop both body and place, Molly’s practice tends to waves as both sound carriers and liquid phenomena, offering forms of caring attention to waters, sites and human/non-human collaborators.
Molly has participated in residencies at Cove Park, Cultivamos Cultura and PRAH Foundation. She is a member of Musarc choir and has performed in spaces such as the Camden Art Centre and the ICA, where she has also shown text-based work. She runs Silt Ensemble, who have recently performed at Project Octagon (2024). Molly was selected as a judge for Artists Project Earth’s Eco-Anthem (2024) competition and short-listed for Culture Recordings New Voice in Poetry prize (2020). She holds a BA (Hons) in English Literature from Sussex University and has trained in the Tamalpa Life/Art Process.
CV:
Exhibitions:
2025 intimate/beyond, Radio Amnion Live, Haus der Kunst, Munich
2024 Surfacing, Project Octagon, London
2024 MA Art and Ecology Degree show, Goldsmiths, London
2024 Stone Club, ICA, London
2023 Between Worlds, group show w/ Daisy Rickman and Ella Russell, hArtslane, London
2019 Touching Space (solo show), ONCA, Brighton
Performance:
2025 The Garden of Chimerical Delights, Musarc, Barbican Centre, London
2024 The Tears We Shed Yesterday Have Become Rain, Project Octagon, London
2024 Soap, MFA Opera, Goldsmiths, London
2024 Croon Harvest, Musarc, Camden Art Centre, London
2024 White Noisery, Musarc, ICA, London
Broadcast:
2024 Songs of Silt, Radio Amnion
2024 Water Devotion, No Bounds Radio
2020 We Need Gentle Truths For Now, podcast by Alexandra Juhasz.
Creative Production:
2025 The Tree Stage, Glastonbury Festival, Somerset
Education
2025 Deep Listening® Intensive I, The Center for Deep Listening
2023-2024 Goldsmiths University of London, MA Art & Ecology (Distinction)
2020-2021 Tamalpa Institute UK, Life/Art Process Expressive Arts Therapy
2015-2018 University of Sussex, English Literature (First Class Honours)