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.

My work has been supported and commissioned by Arts Council England, Art UK, The Arts Society, Mendip AONB, Somerset Community Foundation, Somerset Skills & Learning, Gane Trust, Somerset Art Works, Bishops Palace Wells, Eaton Fund, Shepton Mallet Town Council, Carymoor Environmental Trust, Dobbies, amongst many others.

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