Artist Statement
My practice has two strands, both of which use the idea of retrofuturism; to look forward whilst looking backward. The synthesis of ideas, materials, and forms explore the liminal space between these temporal zones. Artefacts (and their symbolic reference in popular culture) influence the shaping of the work, reflecting the direction the past gives us and how our perception bends it the desires of the present. This imagined reality questions our relationship with technology by considering the displacement and alienation that arises from its ubiquity and complexity.
I use the hybridity of assemblage, and it's quality for making associations to explore the questions that arise from obsolescence, and commodity culture at large. My sculptures combine the manufactured aesthetic of the everyday with modelled or constructed objects. By playing chance against order, the old with the new, or combining the synthetic with the organic, I explore a future whose unfulfilled promise lingers over the present.
The second strand is also grounded in the process of constructing, but it begins with considering the possibilities of the material or process. I use clay because its geological nature allows me to connect the micro to the macro, whilst working unpremeditated. It's material qualities assist spontaneity and working crudely, allowing for the persuasive nature of the affective drive to take hold. As a counterpoint to this, I use the precision of CAD to mirror the determinism of technology.
Selected Group Shows
09/2023 170 Annual RWA Open Exhibition, Bristol selected by Charmaine Watkiss and Meryl Ainslie
08/2023 The London Group at Linden Hall Studio Gallery, Deal, Kent
06/2023 Tethered Publics, Online
04/2023 The London Group at Scarborough, The Old Parcels Office
12/2022 Southwark Park Galleries Open, London
11/2022 The London Group at Bankside, London
08/2022 Catch your Breath with The London Group, St Johns Waterloo, London
12/2021 Southwark Park Galleries Open, London
11/2021 Ing Discerning Eye selected by Russell Tovey, Mall Galleries
12/2020 On Being selected by Kim Power, Sculptors Alliance, New York [Online]
12/2020 Southwark Park Galleries Open, London [Online]
12/2020 Artworks Open selected by Alex Schady and Michelle Williams Gamemaker, London
11/2020 ArtCan Open, Cello Factory selected by Gita Joshi [Cancelled]
11/2019 The London Group Open, Cello Factory
03/2019 RWA Sculpture Open Exhibition, Royal West Academy, Bristol
12/2018 Sculpture at Hampstead School of Art, London
07/2017 Plymouth Contemporary, Karst Gallery, Plymouth
01/2017 Staying with the Troubles, The Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts
04/2016 Walker & Bromwich's Circus Between Worlds, Glasgow International
02/2016 Re:view, Pollok House, Glasgow
07/2015 Woon Foundation Painting and Sculpture Prize selected by Christine Borland, Jenni Lomax &
Laurence Sillars Baltic 39, Newcastle
Awards
2022 Elected into London Group
2019 RWA Sculpture Open Exhibition Prize Winner
2015 Kenneth Armitage Sculpture Award
2015 Woon Foundation Painting and Sculpture Prize Discretionary Prize
Residencies
2020 Hampstead School of Art x Mount Anvil Temple Studio Residency
Education
2021 PGCE Art & Design, University College London
2016 Master of Letters in Sculpture, The Glasgow School of Art
2015 BA Fine Art, Leeds Arts University
2012 Access to HE, Leeds Arts University
Professional Experience
2022 - Present Art Teacher, St Ursula's Convent School, Greenwich
2017 - 2021 Foundation Course Leader Hampstead School of Art
2017 Visiting Lecturer BA Fine Art, Leeds Arts University
2017 Studio Assistant, Oliver Beer Studio
2016 Visiting Lecturer HNC Fine Art, Glasgow Clyde College