Selected works
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.’
Memento Mori I & Memento Mori II, 2019
Animated single channel digital projection, 3m x 2m (variable sizes)
For our throwaway times, I created a series of animated images that reference the traditional Memento Mori and Vanitas. Photographic imagery connected to these traditions (an animal skull, flowers, books) appear and move slowly within the oval shaped projection, alongside some of the accoutrements of modern living, like mobile phones, social media icons and anti- wrinkle creams. Momento Mori is an exploration of the idea of memory, mortality and loss that I began in previous work, The Twelve Trees.
Memento Mori is a Latin term that in English means, “Remember you must die.” This reminder of mortality is not meant to be morbid or make people fearful, but to inspire and motivate people to make the best of their lives. The idea has been a central theme in art, philosophy, literature and architecture throughout history. Related to Memento Mori, Vanitas is a still life tradition of painting that also reminds us of the vanity (as in ultimate worthlessness) of worldly pleasures and goods.
Twelve Trees, 2016-18
Single channel digital projection, 3m x 2m
In twelve months, I lost twelve people I knew, some of them close and some less so, but still people who I had known since I was small. Twelve Trees is an exploration of grief, through a thoughtful and peaceful projection of slowly moving images onto a little used space in the building of Hereford College of Arts. The installation became a point of contemplation for staff and students and the college asked for it to be left in place for a month longer than originally planned. The work was reconfigured for The Happening, an Invisible Arts Network (Rural Media) event in 2017.
Volka, 2015
Single channel digital projection through chapel window to inner church, 2m x 1m
A commission for The Light, a group show of artists working with light. Volka was an installation of projected images in the Volka Chapel at St Michael & All Angels Church. The images were all collected in and around the church and re-presented on and through the chapel window, shining into the interior of the church. The work transformed this area of the church and chapel, showing the details of the church and its environment in a new way and challenging the visitor's knowledge and reading of the building.
Thereby Hangs a Tale (2015)
Single channel digital projection, 10m x 8m. Meadow Arts commission at Croft Castle & Parkland (National Trust).
This is a reconfiguring of a 2013 commission for Meadow Arts and National Trust's Croft Castle & Parkland, who asked for the work to be reshown in a new way. The commission investigated the fabric of the place, both materially and in terms of the stories and tales that live on through its inhabitants and visitors, past and present. The projection on the outer walls of the castle's grounds brought the castle's contents out into the open and subtly referenced the legends and tales of this ancient place. Photos by Stefan Handy.
Gallery
Images of further work
Thereby Hangs a Tale (2013)
Single channel digital projection, 4m x 3m. Meadow Arts commission at Croft Castle & Parkland (National Trust).
Thereby Hangs a Tale is the result of an artist's residency at Croft Castle & Parkland, during which I investigated the fabric of the place.. The Slate Store was a forgotten space in the outer walls of the castle, a building which was otherwise carefully curated and cared for in every detail. Photographing the ornate details from inside the castle I projected them, along with studio images referencing the tales and folklore of the place, into this dark and unloved space, playing with ideas of inside/outside and what we choose to cherish or abandon.
