BIO

b. 1977 Southend - on - Sea, Essex. UK

Royal College of Art
Fine Art - Printmaking ‘08 - ‘10

Manchester Metropolitan Uni
Interactive Arts ‘99 - ‘02

ARTIST STATEMENT

I predominantly make large-scale collages using acrylic paint and oil bars on cotton twill. I also work with ceramic and 35mm photography.

Themes in my work generally examine the diverse ways in which we experience liminality. I'm particularly interested in collecting and collections as liminal both in temporal and spatial terms: researching; procuring; arranging; curating; displaying; archiving. The processes I employ when collaging is analogous to the ritual of collecting as often the impulse to create a collage has less to do with the meaning of a specific work and more to do with the seduction and order of things.

I draw upon material culture for inspiration. I'm interested in the narratives that unfold when disparate objects are brought together. When collaging I allow elements to develop intuitively and distort recognisable forms with simple cuts and gestural marks to foster a degree of ambiguity.

Finished collages are a threshold: a passage into an unstable terrain where memory persists in fragments and ruins, reminding us that permanence is always provisional.

I often title my collages after Virginia Woolf's, 'Solid Objects' (1918). In the story, the protagonist (John), discovers a mysterious object buried on a beach. The abstruse object incites an obsession to seek and collect similar ambiguous objects. Parallels can be drawn between John's pursuit for new objects and my studio practice; the liminal spaces in which John finds (himself and) the ambiguous objects, is akin to the studio space, a realm in which transformative actions occur, and new forms and structures emerge.

RECENT AWARDS / EXHIBITIONS

Shortlisted - Contemporary British Painting Prize ‘23 Exhibited at Huddersfield Art Gallery / Thames Side Studio Gallery, London
Shortlisted - Bankley Gallery Open Call ‘23 Exhibited at Bankley Gallery, Manchester