Influences
The notion of identity and connected-ness - the idea of ‘home’ - what that means, how it’s defined and how it defines us, is something that has interested me for as long as I can remember. It’s a huge influence on my work, as is the use of maps, text and data because each of those elements can be manipulated to hide or expose information. I use them as tools and a way of apprehending who I am and where I sit in the world.
About the work
As a visual artist, I find it difficult to articulate my work in words - after all, it's Visual Art. And, viewers bring themselves to the work, so any interpretation is up to the them, really. That said, below is a description of the work from my perspective.
Terra Infirma - A mini world atlas, hand-cut into small fragments and inserted into a blown glass sphere and placed on a wooden plinth at roughly the same angle of axis for planet earth, which, ironically, was the only angle that actually worked, in order for the fragments to intermingle. The sphere can move so that the fragments scatter and overlap, just as the human race does. Localities, once easily defined, become fluid; our understanding of territory is disrupted, reinterpreted, redistributed and repositioned. Terra Infirma was commissioned by The Multiple Store and is now residing in the Tate Archive of British Art at Tate Britain as a part of The Multiple Store Collection.
No Such Place is a digitally created series of imaginary maps originated from random photographs of pavement cracks, taken from Bethnal Green to Venice and lots of places in between. The images are backlit and set on a plinth to be viewed from above, giving a sense of satellite imagery and fictional territories. There is an illusion of actual localities and the interplay between the real and imagined provokes thoughts of perception, boundary and territory.
Shift is a sort of 'moving 3D infographic', re-presenting migration patterns in Europe, and is based on statistical data at the time, for the five top and bottom countries of destination (Germany, the USA, Canada, the UK and France and Norway, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Poland and Kazakhstan respectively). Comprised of hand-cut map fragments affixed to luggage tags which are aligned in a grid and hung by thin red thread, they spin around, denoting movement. Each tag has a country of origin on one side and destination on the other. A short video of the work can be seen here.
Luck of the Draw is a tableau that re-presents statistical data from the Human Development Index in the form of a card game in progress. The cards represent countries in order of ranking, and the poker chips represent forms of human currency - health, wealth, equality and literacy. No one can dictate where they come into this world - it truly is the luck of the draw, which often has a huge influence on who we are able to become.
Swarm - Originally created for a 2011 Venice Bienniale fringe show, ‘Invasive Alien Species’, this work reflects on the idea that humans are quite possibly the most invasive species on the planet. Hand-cut fragments from an East London telephone directory containing thousands of names, addresses and telephone numbers are densely constructed to reference a swarm of insects. An irony is also found in the fact that telephone directories are endangered and soon to be extinct themselves. The work was eventually installed at an outdoor exhibition in East London, where it disintegrated as time passed, rather appropriately.
Exchange - Obsolete pre-Euro currency, hand-cut, strung through fishing line and attached to a wooden frame forms the echo of an abacus, an ancient counting tool, long ago replaced by technology in most of the world. European currency, now extinct, was once a symbol of national identity, sovereignty and power.
Blue Note I & II - Photographs of electrical wires capturing a combination of light, shadow, texture and shape and caught at just the right moment to create loose, gestural marks resembling musical notes. The resulting work becomes as much about mark making, line and value as it does about being in the right place at the right time, and capturing the ‘frozen moment’.
yesyesohhyes is a neon piece specifically created for the Big Deal Sexy 100 show. It's a playful comment on how female identity and sexuality is often perceived. Unsurprisingly, the image has been nicked and used on various 'questionable' sites.
All In This Together is a neon piece created as comment on David Cameron's 'hug a hoodie/we're all in this together' rhetoric when Britain was in the midst of the credit crunch. It references the power that money has - the US dollar in particular - and the rhetoric of that power, in opposition to the scale of economic inequality that, sadly, lingers to this day.
End Point and You Are Here
End Point is a real-time photograph of You Are Here, an object originally created as a multiple. It emerged as a photographic collaboration with the artist and photographer Paul Tucker, as a way to realise the work to its full potential, and, fortunately, we didn't burn the studio down in what was an interesting process. Both pieces present a visual representation of the well known truism, ‘burning the candle at both ends’. The photograph catches the candle, appearing to float in mid air, as the wicks simultaneously burn and the wax begins to melt. A drip, caught just at the moment it falls from the wick, resembles a teardrop. The object itself presents a conundrum; do you light it and let it burn or keep it as a reminder to slow down?
Truth/Deceit
The poker chip, with 'truth' on one side and 'deceit' on the other, is a comment on the notion of moral choice and it’s implied risks and consequences. The use of blue is symbolic. In gambling, the blue chip represents a nominal amount, often $10.00, and is therefore ‘a safe bet’. In business, “Blue-chip” companies are seen as financially sound. Winning a blue ribbon in a contest denotes coming first, and, to describe someone as ‘true blue’ implies integrity and honour. Morality is subjective though; dependent on which side of the coin one happens to be on.
Fragile Memories - Site responsive work at GXGallery, which has retained some original features from its former life as a bakery. Fragments of found newsprint from The Reynolds News, published in the late 1800's and unearthed during a home renovation, are assembled on fishing line inside a disused bread oven. The resulting photograph is a reminder of how the news of the day - football scores, wedding banns, political headlines and so on, is ephemeral and disappears as time passes.
Burnt Offerings - Spent matches, collected and contained in glass vials as an attempt to apprehend and hold on to traces of the past. They become a testament to the recollections they evoke - of longing, loss and love, remembered fleetingly.
Anticipation and Melancholy - work for The Travellers Secret Box project in collaboration with Danish artist Lars Vilhelmsen, who sent me the object (a 'box' of sorts) with a request to create a piece of work with it. The resulting photographs are a projection of light (Anticipation) and an image taken from old family slides onto the box. (Melancholy) The box acts as a container, holding memories (imagined or true) evoked from the projections, and has traveled across the globe for many years, engaging with a variety of artists in the process.
Terra Infirma - A mini world atlas, hand-cut into small fragments and inserted into a blown glass sphere and placed on a wooden plinth at roughly the same angle of axis for planet earth, which, ironically, was the only angle that actually worked, in order for the fragments to intermingle. The sphere can move so that the fragments scatter and overlap, just as the human race does. Localities, once easily defined, become fluid; our understanding of territory is disrupted, reinterpreted, redistributed and repositioned. Terra Infirma was commissioned by The Multiple Store and is now residing in the Tate Archive of British Art at Tate Britain as a part of The Multiple Store Collection.
No Such Place is a digitally created series of imaginary maps originated from random photographs of pavement cracks, taken from Bethnal Green to Venice and lots of places in between. The images are backlit and set on a plinth to be viewed from above, giving a sense of satellite imagery and fictional territories. There is an illusion of actual localities and the interplay between the real and imagined provokes thoughts of perception, boundary and territory.
Shift is a sort of 'moving 3D infographic', re-presenting migration patterns in Europe, and is based on statistical data at the time, for the five top and bottom countries of destination (Germany, the USA, Canada, the UK and France and Norway, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Poland and Kazakhstan respectively). Comprised of hand-cut map fragments affixed to luggage tags which are aligned in a grid and hung by thin red thread, they spin around, denoting movement. Each tag has a country of origin on one side and destination on the other. A short video of the work can be seen here.
Luck of the Draw is a tableau that re-presents statistical data from the Human Development Index in the form of a card game in progress. The cards represent countries in order of ranking, and the poker chips represent forms of human currency - health, wealth, equality and literacy. No one can dictate where they come into this world - it truly is the luck of the draw, which often has a huge influence on who we are able to become.
Swarm - Originally created for a 2011 Venice Bienniale fringe show, ‘Invasive Alien Species’, this work reflects on the idea that humans are quite possibly the most invasive species on the planet. Hand-cut fragments from an East London telephone directory containing thousands of names, addresses and telephone numbers are densely constructed to reference a swarm of insects. An irony is also found in the fact that telephone directories are endangered and soon to be extinct themselves. The work was eventually installed at an outdoor exhibition in East London, where it disintegrated as time passed, rather appropriately.
Exchange - Obsolete pre-Euro currency, hand-cut, strung through fishing line and attached to a wooden frame forms the echo of an abacus, an ancient counting tool, long ago replaced by technology in most of the world. European currency, now extinct, was once a symbol of national identity, sovereignty and power.
Blue Note I & II - Photographs of electrical wires capturing a combination of light, shadow, texture and shape and caught at just the right moment to create loose, gestural marks resembling musical notes. The resulting work becomes as much about mark making, line and value as it does about being in the right place at the right time, and capturing the ‘frozen moment’.
yesyesohhyes is a neon piece specifically created for the Big Deal Sexy 100 show. It's a playful comment on how female identity and sexuality is often perceived. Unsurprisingly, the image has been nicked and used on various 'questionable' sites.
All In This Together is a neon piece created as comment on David Cameron's 'hug a hoodie/we're all in this together' rhetoric when Britain was in the midst of the credit crunch. It references the power that money has - the US dollar in particular - and the rhetoric of that power, in opposition to the scale of economic inequality that, sadly, lingers to this day.
End Point and You Are Here
End Point is a real-time photograph of You Are Here, an object originally created as a multiple. It emerged as a photographic collaboration with the artist and photographer Paul Tucker, as a way to realise the work to its full potential, and, fortunately, we didn't burn the studio down in what was an interesting process. Both pieces present a visual representation of the well known truism, ‘burning the candle at both ends’. The photograph catches the candle, appearing to float in mid air, as the wicks simultaneously burn and the wax begins to melt. A drip, caught just at the moment it falls from the wick, resembles a teardrop. The object itself presents a conundrum; do you light it and let it burn or keep it as a reminder to slow down?
Truth/Deceit
The poker chip, with 'truth' on one side and 'deceit' on the other, is a comment on the notion of moral choice and it’s implied risks and consequences. The use of blue is symbolic. In gambling, the blue chip represents a nominal amount, often $10.00, and is therefore ‘a safe bet’. In business, “Blue-chip” companies are seen as financially sound. Winning a blue ribbon in a contest denotes coming first, and, to describe someone as ‘true blue’ implies integrity and honour. Morality is subjective though; dependent on which side of the coin one happens to be on.
Fragile Memories - Site responsive work at GXGallery, which has retained some original features from its former life as a bakery. Fragments of found newsprint from The Reynolds News, published in the late 1800's and unearthed during a home renovation, are assembled on fishing line inside a disused bread oven. The resulting photograph is a reminder of how the news of the day - football scores, wedding banns, political headlines and so on, is ephemeral and disappears as time passes.
Burnt Offerings - Spent matches, collected and contained in glass vials as an attempt to apprehend and hold on to traces of the past. They become a testament to the recollections they evoke - of longing, loss and love, remembered fleetingly.
Anticipation and Melancholy - work for The Travellers Secret Box project in collaboration with Danish artist Lars Vilhelmsen, who sent me the object (a 'box' of sorts) with a request to create a piece of work with it. The resulting photographs are a projection of light (Anticipation) and an image taken from old family slides onto the box. (Melancholy) The box acts as a container, holding memories (imagined or true) evoked from the projections, and has traveled across the globe for many years, engaging with a variety of artists in the process.