Statement

I am a visual artist, educator and curator.  I create mixed media assemblages, blurring boundaries between sculpture, drawing and installation, often large-scale and immersive.  There is an overriding message of sustainability, with environment at heart; a passion for nature rooted in the notion of life’s interconnectedness, cyclical persistence, transformation.  I am interested in tentacularity; the complex web of relationships from micro to macro.  I see these rhizomic connections as metaphors for life, vitalism and regeneration.  Life as line, energy, is an ongoing ‘doing’ thing - matter in a process of becoming.  The work focuses on concerns about climate breakdown, human exploitation of nature and over-consumption, which has led to catastrophic mass animal/plant extinctions.  My approach is a form of suturing, artivism, making do, care and repair, giving abandoned objects new life.

Materiality and process are key.  My re-appropriation of reclaimed, found and discarded materials relates to waste, our relationship with matter, nature, and ourselves.   I regard materials as non-hierarchical.  I use labour-intensive methods, often meditative, engaging directly with materials, deliberately showing the hand of maker.  Processes include weaving, wrapping, hand stitching, soldering, welding and casting.  There is a play of contrasts, an eclectic juxtaposition of delicate/soft and strong/hard. These can suggest organic bodily forms, sometimes abject.

The work blends ancient craft with contemporary concepts, fusing cultures. Deep-rooted connections with Kenya (where I was brought up) inform work.  Larger concerns are layered over personal histories. Through my work, I invite introspection and conversation.  I am particularly interested in creating site-responsive work in unexpected places for art, reaching people who may not have engaged with contemporary art before.  Alongside my own practice, I work within the community on socially engaged projects.

Works on this site are available for sale - please enquire.