David Appleyard

Working across both studio and public contexts, he is interested in the ways folklore, myth, personal experience and overlooked narratives shape our understanding of the world. His projects often begin with a fragment: a piece of local folklore, an unusual observation, an overlooked object, a chance encounter or a half-remembered story.

Since establishing his practice in 2007, Appleyard has realised projects across the UK ranging from intimate studio works, publications and found-object assemblages to large-scale public commissions, heritage interpretation and architectural interventions. Drawing on research, humour and associative forms of enquiry, he constructs narratives that move between fact and fiction, the personal and the collective.

His work combines historical research, folklore and storytelling to reveal new relationships between people, places and ideas.

Collaboration forms an important part of his practice, and he regularly works with communities, makers, researchers and specialist craftspeople to develop projects that bring together different forms of knowledge and expertise. Over the past two decades he has delivered commissions, exhibitions and heritage projects in partnership with public bodies, cultural organisations and private clients.

Alongside his site-specific and commissioned projects, Appleyard maintains an active studio practice, developing works that explore memory, humour, folklore and the unexpected connections between people, places, objects and stories.