Meanderings through media and materials allow me to explore the ephemeral nature of culture and society, illusions of freedom and feelings of being locked in to a civilisation that appears to be based on systems that are incompatible with human and planetary evolution.
I like to think that my work is a reminder that even small changes can make a big difference and I enjoy making subtle interventions that are a multisensory response to the spirit of a place or situation.
Starting from ‘Zone 0’ – a still centre familiar from yogic practice and permaculture – I look to adopt a stance that is attuned to observing, receiving and responding with accuracy and empathy, so that the work grows organically and is a product of an ecosystem as well as an individual.
Photos, film clips, audio recordings, drawings and notes record my discoveries and once this mapping is done, I begin to dig deeper and unearth why a place or situation evokes certain responses – reasons which may pivot on a site’s geographic features, history, socio-political references or personal connections. What manifests is a cultural journey exploring and responding to a site’s qualities like a wandering dance during which the subject and myself move together in repeated explorations and excavations and apart during thinking and making.
Working with a broad palette of digital and physical media allows my responses to be sculpted, assembled from found objects, drawn, filmed, recorded, stitched, aromatised, photographed and written and final works generally involve a combination of several of these. The challenges of a rare and incurable illness demand that I work outside ‘normal’ limits and expectations and lends fragility to the outcomes, which are allowed to bear witness to a shaky hand, a blurred eye, a halting pace, an exhausted mind.