Shoulder

Aquatint and Chine Collé, 2022

Variable edition

 

Weaklings

Images of work made in cast sugar recently exhibited in The Beginning of History, curated by Nick Kaplony at ASC Studios, London.

A Shut in Place

A chest of drawers rendered unopenable, covered in fabric cut and fitted to echo the shape of the furniture underneath.

Essentially ‘dressed’ and concealed, it expresses a desire for secrecy.

I have become aware of traditions of dressing inanimate objects, thus fetishising them, and how this effects a reverence when encountering the object.

Layers of fabric over the furniture’s exterior wood suggests layers of psychology and psychoanalytic uncovering.

Exhibited as part of yesterday's Claustrophilia event organised by Nice Spread held at the Bussey Building, Peckham.

Mexico vol. I

Candles

lit

used

monthly

weekly

daily

in the dark

in rows

coloured

I found in markets that candles of different sizes are sold. In increments of time; weekly daily, 2 weekly. In different coloured plastic cases. They are literal markers of periods of time. I bring some home and my bag is searched suspiciously at Vancouver airport. I have started to collect the remains of candles. I like that they become remnants of time. I will cast them; mixing together their colours and scents.

Estate

The knives have undertones of the bodily, of use, of everyday intimacy. They talk about violence and broken families. Estate becomes a reference to inheritance of property, possessions, heirlooms passed down through generations. Familiar and domestic, they ask to be used, but the blades bend and poison the food. Their heft belies a softness and vulnerability.

Cast, they become generations of themselves, reproduced with failings each time.

They sit as relics; fetishes of family life.

cast knife

knife

A drawing in pencil of a knife. I am collecting more knives for casting in lead.

Inheritance

Images of the piece on display for RCA Show 2012 (open until next Sunday -1st July) along with the etchings.

etchings

Cast iron box. I'm reading Freud's "Family Romances" and still thinking about heirlooms, unwanted traits and burdens.

necklaces

Drawings of necklaces. Graphite on paper. Exploring ideas of heirlooms and familial relationships.

Table clothes

An image of an older piece of work recently re-displayed in the Hockey Gallery.

new work

Lead pieces which will be on display in the Interim Show. On from 12th-18th January.

Curses

I am making a series of brooches, un-wearable and cast in lead.

They are a group or part of a collection and they speak of Roman lead curses, lead votive pilgrim badges, war won (war worn) medals, souvenirs and mementoes. As amulets for modern living or literal burdens to be worn and carried about. I am thinking about invested objects and their verisimilitude.

Lead with its connotations of the industrial, the poisonous and toxic, and its weightiness; and brooches, too, with their history of being pretty, decorative and way of marking out the wearer

I am using traditional casting methods with cuttlefish bones and silicon whose transparent supple skin yields hard metal shapes.

The lead will be made precious with additions of pearls and coral; coral with its supposed ability to keep away the evil eye and its associations of ‘life blood’.

Blanket, cotton bandage, soft woollen fabric or silk might be attached. Silk for striped medal ribbons. I like the mixture of textures and there is already something soft about lead.

Ectoplasm handkerchiefs.

These are 3 images of new work about ectoplasm and séances.

Some collages inspired by the use of arsenic in Victorian wallpaper for a project to design wallpaper. Eventually the collages will be put into a repeat and used as a pattern.

These are some images from recent work in progress. I was looking at the innate human ability to read meaning into shapes and dreams. I was also thinking about Rorschach's inkblots, phantom limbs and ideas of votive objects. I sent out the second image for people's responses and I'm going to work with the list that resulted. Thanks to everyone who responded with their thoughts and associations.

Work in Progress show

Images from the RCA Work in Progress show. The tears are part of the work on mourning. The 3 collages are something I'm still working on to do with sleeves.

tears

Tear drops to continue the theme of mourning. They'll be exhibited at the college Work in Progress show next week (13th-19th January).