Friction, 2023

Digital animation with sound, 3 minutes 12 seconds

Commissioned by the Centre for Cultural Value

Friction is a response to the Centre for Cultural Value’s Research Digest, The Role of the Artist in Society. The gathered research speaks of tension, ambiguity, and binaries, pointing out that the artist has many roles within society. Artists work within communities, in education and as activists, while funding structures are mostly based on the short-term and do not put artists needs first, often resulting in inequalities.

I wanted to draw out some of the themes of the report, responding particularly to the idea of tension and using visuals that are playful and colourful, reflecting the many faces of being an artist and the realities of how the art world is structured.

I used both found and hand-drawn imagery, continuing an exploration of the animated ‘still life’ that has seen me look at the Memento Mori art tradition for the past few years. My work responds to people, stories and memory, and it felt important to delve into the experience of artists to make Friction.

Longings & Belongings, 2022

Digital animation with sound, 2 minutes 50 seconds

Using spoken word and animation, Longings & Belongings is a meditation on objects and memories, exploring how we cling to things that connect us to someone we’ve lost. In my art practice, I examine how things infused with memories are important as mementoes, and as memento mori (or reminders of mortality).

In 2020 my grandmother died, and I helped my dad and uncles to pack up her belongings. It struck me then how none of us knew all the stories attached to the things she had kept over the years. Later, I realised that I had created new attachments and memories connected to the objects of hers that I brought home. In my studio, I often drew a Cornishware jug that I had kept, and the drawings became the starting point for this short artist's film.

Head, Heart, Gut, 2021

Digital animation with sound, 37 seconds

Commissioned by The Hour Collective

Head, Heart, Gut shines a light on the ways that we think, and where, sometimes unexpectedly, those thoughts emerge from. The instincts that we carry within us stretch back through the ages and inform the way we think and react now, in an act of collective 'muscle memory' that directly connects us with our ancestors.

Commissioned as part of 'One Year of One Hours' - to celebrate the first anniversary of The Hour Collective, coaching for artists, twelve artists were commissioned to make a piece of work responding to their coaching journey. The Hour invited the artists to spend one hour making something in response to an ‘aha’ coaching moment.

Object Love, 2020

Digital animation with sound, 7:48 minutes

Commissioned by Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum

Object Love is an animated video of objects from the collection of Museums Worcestershire and from people’s own homes. I think of it as a moving ‘still life’ that brings a new perspective to the things that we collect in the museum and in our homes. We all have things in our homes that we cherish, whether they have monetary value or for sentimental reasons, and many museum objects are items that were once in an individual’s home.

In autumn 2020, I invited people to choose an object, and tell me the story behind it for Object Love, commissioned by Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum. Worcester’s art gallery is housed in one of the oldest museums in the country; the Worcester Museums collection of objects and art is very varied and full of fascinating things. I also collected images of some of the objects that people have at home that they cherish.

My recent work has explored the Memento Mori/Vanitas painting tradition, which was an idea that started in the 17th century. Artists created paintings that gathered together objects, which could include flowers, fruit, vegetables, insects, skulls, books, clocks and so on. The translation of ‘memento mori’ is ‘remember you must die’ and the idea was to remind people that they should live their lives to the full. I like to think of it as a nudge about possessions and materialism that reminds us that, ‘You can’t take it with you.’