Racheal Crowther

Racheal Crowther uses installation to explore the fine line between care and control, focusing on the psychological and social dimensions of buildings, objects, and spaces. Drawing on her background in ​‘social care work’, Racheal examines how environments — especially those associated with confinement — are designed to regulate behaviour, with systems of governance and surveillance embedded within everyday architecture and apparatus. Within the gallery space, she brings together objects and architectural elements that carry specific institutional and psychosocial associations, often sourced from healthcare, housing, or custodial contexts. 

Alongside material structures, Racheal’s practice engages immaterial forces that shape experience. Previous works have incorporated radio frequencies and ambient signals, with more recent pieces exploring scent as a sub-perceptual medium. Across retail, corporate, military, and carceral environments, scent is strategically deployed to influence mood and response, often operating below conscious awareness.

Recent works include Liquid Trust, a solo exhibition at the Chisenhale Gallery, examining the tension between objects typically associated with care that simultaneously enforce authority and restrict movement. Moving between military infrastructure, neurochemical signalling, and histories of psychological design, the installation examines how bodies are processed, soothed, and regulated within institutional systems. Throughout 2027, Liquid Trust will be exhibited at the Temple Bar Gallery and Studios in Dublin, followed by Bétonsalon in Paris.