Eleanor Havsteen-Franklin
Eleanor Havsteen-Franklin is a contemporary artist working across sculpture, printmaking and drawing. Her practice explores botanical and biological forms, materiality and the surreal hybridity of human and nonhuman life. Through experimental processes, she creates objects and images that blur distinctions between organisms, bodily structures and imagined ecologies, exploring the complex entanglements of living systems.
Art, Ecology and Nonhuman Entanglement
Collaborations with scientists and engagement with research into fungi, plant immunity and mutually beneficial interactions between organisms have informed Eleanor's understanding of ecological interdependence. These encounters, alongside her interests in ecology, animism and sustainable living, contribute to an artistic practice concerned with the relationships between living systems, environments and materials.
Her sculptures, prints and drawings evoke ambiguous, sometimes otherworldly forms that move between the botanical, bodily and microscopic. Familiar structures become strange through processes of transformation, questioning conventional boundaries between species and inviting reflection on the interconnectedness of human and nonhuman worlds.
Anna Souter writes:
“Eleanor Havsteen-Franklin’s hybrid objects occupy space like animate celestial bodies. Initially familiar, on closer inspection they complexify into alien amalgamation, where human organs sprout fronds, roots, or barnacles. They float serenely, hovering in a state of indeterminacy like marine animals or specimens in jars, speaking to a widespread shared desire to fly. They are inhabitants of an alternative realm where different rules apply, prompting us to question the systems that determine our own existences.
Are these tiny assemblages spied under a microscope, or entire worlds viewed from a vast distance? The cellular and the planetary are intimately linked; happenings on a molecular or cellular level are fundamentally connected to enormous events on bodily, societal, and geological scales. It is dizzying to think of miniscule sea creatures living and dying millions of years ago, whose bodies formed the fossil fuel deposits that power our existence today.”— Anna Souter
Material Investigation: Printmaking, Drawing and Sculpture
Material investigation is central to Eleanor's process-led practice. In printmaking, she deliberately encourages foul biting on the copper plate during etching, creating a dialogue between intentional drawn lines and unpredictable marks. Deeply etched surfaces evoke the molecular and physical textures of living tissue, including skin and plant structures. At times, stitching into Japanese paper extends the printed surface into three-dimensional space, transforming the etched line into a tactile form.
In sculpture, she explores the delicate yet visceral qualities of porcelain, both in its raw state and through the processes of glazing and firing. Combining clay with cement casts, charcoal, silicone and other materials, she investigates the textures, tensions and unexpected relationships that emerge through material experimentation.
Her practice is rooted in material intuition, where forms develop through an interplay of gesture, chance and transformation rather than predetermined outcomes. Materials are not simply used to represent biological structures; their physical properties and unpredictable responses actively contribute to the emergence of the work.
Art–Science Collaborations, Residencies and Collections
Eleanor's practice has developed through interdisciplinary collaborations with scientists, artists and poets, including research collaborations with the Sainsbury Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. Her work explores connections between artistic practice and scientific enquiry, with particular interests in plant biology, fungi, ecological relationships and material processes.
She is currently participating in the MASS Sculpture Programme in London and received an a-n bursary in 2025. Over the years, she has undertaken international residencies and collaborative projects across artistic, scientific and cultural contexts.
Eleanor was project lead for SILA: Inuit Culture and Arctic Sustainability at the Royal Geographical Society, London. The project included a residency at NIRS in Narsaq, Greenland, and creative engagement with young people in Greenland and the UK.
Her work is held in several collections, including the Clifford Chance Print Collection, the Victoria and Albert Museum Print Collection, Scarborough Art Gallery Print Archive and Guanlan Print Collection, China.
Future Collaborations
Eleanor welcomes opportunities for new art–science collaborations, interdisciplinary research projects, residencies and funding partnerships. She is particularly interested in working with researchers exploring biological systems, ecological interdependence, materiality and human–nonhuman relationships, where artistic experimentation can contribute to new forms of enquiry and public engagement.
Eleanor is represented by De Queeste Art, Belgium.
‘Looking closely at the deeply etched lines on the paper, suddenly they appear as tangible shapes; the etched line becomes thread. Havsteen-Franklin literally sews the etching lines into three-dimensional space with threads. It is art that captivates you, as if you are looking at a wonderful floating life in the deep sea. It is this very contemporary experimental printmaking that makes it uncomparable.’