NESTLED into Kendal's cultural quarter, Cross Lane Projects is a gallery space situated in the former Kendal Mint Cake factory, on Cross Lane, off Kirkland. Opened by artists Rebecca Scott and Mark Woods in June, the aim of CLP is to bring new contemporary art and debate to Cumbria.

Next in Rebecca and Mark's exhibition programme is Frances Richardson's Not Even Nothing Can Be Free Of Ghosts.

Frances was the recipient of the Mark Tanner Sculpture Award 2017/18.

Coordinated by London's Standpoint Gallery, the sculpture award is one of the most significant awards for emerging artists working in the field of sculpture in the UK.

Mark Tanner was a British sculptor who trained at St Martin's College of Art and had been associated with Standpoint since its inception. He worked mainly in steel, and was one of the first artists to show in Standpoint Gallery. He died in 1998 after a long illness. The award was established in 2001, on the initiative of and with full sponsorship from a private charitable trust, to keep alive the passion and enthusiasm he had for the making of art.

Offering £8,000 towards the making of new work, the award rewards outstanding and innovative practice, with a particular interest in work that demonstrates a commitment to process, or sensitivity to material. Frances was selected from 232 applicants and her exhibition has been developed over the period of a year.

Frances's Not Even Nothing Can Be Free Of Ghosts is showing outside of London for the first time as a new initiative to share the award winner's work with audiences across the north of England.

A key piece in the Leeds-born artist's exhibition is Eidolon, named after a Greek word for object that applies equally to an idea and a thing. She found a piece of chipboard on the street in Deptford, London, and was interested in its distinctive shape. "I made a mirror image of the board in paper as a way of getting to know it; in making it out of another material, I’m measuring it with that material. The two sit together in a kind of Rorschach, a death moth; or are they wings?"

Frances is interested in dualities and investigates a splitting between the sense one can get from being with an object or place, and its measurable qualities.

Her approach to sculpture draws out and exposes inherent properties in materials and the language of making. Using wood, veneer, video and copper for her new works, Frances says that the material, and the way that you process the material, is integral to the spirit and meaning of the piece: "It’s the content of the work."

The exhibition runs until Sunday, December 16, open Thursday to Sunday, noon-6pm.

Meanwhile, Frances gives a talk about her work at Cross Lane on Tuesday, November 20, from 7pm-8pm. Booking is recommended at www.crosslaneprojects.com.