ACE DYCP Grant!

Some great news!  I’m thrilled to have been offered an Arts Council England Developing Your Creative Practice grant! This will enable me to spend dedicated studio time and research to move my practice forwards in terms of conceptual rigour, sustainability and reach.  I'll be undertaking bi-monthly artistic mentoring sessions with Mark Devereux Projects; exploring new processes and ideas (especially regarding environment/climate justice); and expanding networks and cultural perspectives via a research trip to Kenya, my birthplace.

I did an ACE DYCP workshop with Mark Devereux Projects, which I’m sure helped in my successful application.

I’m very excited and so grateful to ACE for this funding after a difficult time.

The Gleaning, a collaborative community art project I’m curating with Gill Sakakini, has been absorbing me with extensive time spent hand-stitching patches of remnants together.  I’ve also been printmaking and hand-dyeing/tie-dyeing with home-made plant- based inks (eg oak galls, onion skins, rust, avocado pits, indigo and turmeric).

The project leads to a final exhibition of 11 large-scale textile installations suspended in front of windows in St Peter & St Paul’s Church, Shepton Mallet during Somerset Art Weeks Festival, 24 Sept - 9 Oct.  Our aim is to bring environment into community, reusing what we have around us. The work is being created using a range of fabric, plastic and paper scraps. We have a great steering group including Lizzie Britain, Rosalind Teesdale-Ives and Polly Hall.

I’m currently working on a panel themed ‘Earthlings’. On this piece, stories within a story celebrate fauna and flora, the value and importance of non-humans, and life’s interconnectedness - micro to macro. We’ve started engaging others.  I’ve been working with a young person (Fergus), whose story is about overcoming his fear of insects. His contribution has been created using lino and string prints on tie dyed muslin (with turmeric pigment). Looking forward to working with others over the summer.

Our first workshop is tomorrow 11 June at Collett Park Day (10-5, Collett Park, Shepton Mallet BA4 5BP). We’ll be offering printmaking on various surfaces, and story gathering with Polly Hall, most of which will become part of our collaborative art exhibition. See below a list of our other Gleaning workshops this summer. Do join us!

It was great to chat to Luke Knight on BBC Radio Somerset breakfast programme about The Gleaning last Sunday. Listen here at 2:50-2:57. We’re also grateful to What’s on Somerset and Shepton Journal for features.

We’re fund-raising, and gathering material contributions. If you can help with funds or you’re nearby in Somerset and have any sheer fabric to get rid of, please get in touch.

Together We Rise

In 10 days I’ll be installing Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand in Chichester Cathedral for Together We Rise.  The exhibition comprises over 26 artworks by Royal Society of Sculptors members, curated by Jacquiline Creswell. The work responds to the artists’ experience of the pandemic, their resilience, sense of community and collective hope. 

It’s been a long labour-intensive process creating multiple bodily forms from recycled materials.  The layers of stitching, dyeing, casting, weaving and waxing unwanted materials relates to care and repair, artisan techniques and invisible hands across the globe. The title refers to Renaissance religious paintings (especially by Durer) of the same title. I’ve subverted this to confront issues about multi-species justice, the plight of pangolins, and value of non-humans.

Behind the scenes I’ve been working as part of the steering group.  The exhibition runs from 27 June to 6 September. Our Private View is on 1 July, 6.30pm.  If you’d like to attend this event, please let me know as guest numbers are limited. There will be artist talks during the show (dates TBC - with this space).

I’ve updated my website galleries to include some excellent photos taken by Kate McDonnell of Snakes and Ladders II and Of Bones in Walcot Chapel for Materiality. Take a look!

Wishing you a lovely summer!