I have been fascinated by the duality and the multiplicity of the home as a space and how it is linked to our identity. This led to my PhD research of alter egos and how artists use them as a space to create and develop their practice. The home as a physical and philosophical place has been a niggle that wouldn't go away. The home has so many facets, and the more I delved into comfy sofas and dirty toilets, the more I pondered the role of the home. Does the closing door keep us safe or lock us up with something sinister?
Moments (2025). PhD Viva Exhibition
Changing Patterns. (2024). Reading University.
Changing Patterns. (2024). Reading University.
Playscape (2026) was created during my residency at Jelly Studios. I created a fantastical dollhouse to be the space I didn't have as a child. A doll's house full of colour, pattern and textures that took inspiration from stately homes and the kitsch. It became a metaphor for self and a space for my daft sense of humour with parodies of contemporary artworks. It fed into research of spaces and the home, The Poetics of Space (Bachelard), House as a mirror of self, Foucault, Of Other Spaces and Architecture of the Uncanny. The challenge was to make the space familiar yet not so, an uncanny space, as Freud might describe it.
At first view, it looks like a doll's house, albeit one that is a riot of colour. Yet on closer inspection, it reveals the house is not a toy, and the rooms contain details with darker meanings. The space is played with, with a small dark room, with no purpose, at the back of one of the bedrooms, which represents that which we do not know (the Jahari window) or the dark spaces we keep hidden from the world. There are bags of rubbish in the kitchen, bottles of poison, a condemned fridge, and a picture of a Lidl soup can. The lounge has hand-printed wallpaper of lips from one of my installations. They mock and make the space uncomfortable. There is a small gold staircase that goes nowhere and an oversized fireplace I cast from plaster. The rug has a dead body outlined (in a Keith Haring style) and a table with shoes on its legs. There are two sofas, one covered in mohair and one in lips. There is a study with fur walls, a grand bedroom with hornets and scorpion wallpaper and a gold bed with feet. Outside, bunting spells "unhomely" and the side of the building has a mural that has been graffiti-ed.
Disruption. (2022). Cromwell Place. London
"Comfort Blanket", (2020)
The comfort blanket that subsumes the home and becomes a restriction.
Medium: Donated shirts and bedlinen, lino printed with bay leaf motifs as a nod to Daphne's escape from Apollo.
The comfort blanket that subsumes the home and becomes a restriction.
Medium: Donated shirts and bedlinen, lino printed with bay leaf motifs as a nod to Daphne's escape from Apollo.
"House wife / house husband", (2019)
A nod to Louise Bourgeois' "Femme Maison". Exploring gender roles and the suppression of the home.
Medium: Bronze.
A nod to Louise Bourgeois' "Femme Maison". Exploring gender roles and the suppression of the home.
Medium: Bronze.
"We need more tea", (2019)
In times of trouble the go to response is to make a cup of tea. But there are times when the amount of tea required to sooth is infinite.
Media: Wood, glue, wire, caulk, varnish and hope.
In times of trouble the go to response is to make a cup of tea. But there are times when the amount of tea required to sooth is infinite.
Media: Wood, glue, wire, caulk, varnish and hope.
"The truth is somewhere in-between", (2019)
I found two plaster plaques depicting twee cottages. I painted one in neon colours, as a sickly make over to create a psychedelic utopian scene and one obliterated the cottage with matt black paint.
I found two plaster plaques depicting twee cottages. I painted one in neon colours, as a sickly make over to create a psychedelic utopian scene and one obliterated the cottage with matt black paint.
"Overload"
Using broken costume jewellery, everyday for six months I would stick a piece onto an old desk I found is a skip and sprayed silver. I found a man who collated broken pieces as he cleared the houses of the recently deceased. The desk started to change its form as the jewellery colonised and changed it into a new form. High heeled shoes added a touch of absurdity to the piece.
Using broken costume jewellery, everyday for six months I would stick a piece onto an old desk I found is a skip and sprayed silver. I found a man who collated broken pieces as he cleared the houses of the recently deceased. The desk started to change its form as the jewellery colonised and changed it into a new form. High heeled shoes added a touch of absurdity to the piece.
"Backbone", (2021)
I interviewed women at a women's refuge as part of an art therapy session. Their positivity and resolve was incredible. Outside the building was a skip full of broken furniture which I was allowed to take. From this I create a spine that honours the women's strength.
Media: Iron, broken furniture and scouring pads.
I interviewed women at a women's refuge as part of an art therapy session. Their positivity and resolve was incredible. Outside the building was a skip full of broken furniture which I was allowed to take. From this I create a spine that honours the women's strength.
Media: Iron, broken furniture and scouring pads.
"House", (2019)
Merging of buildings, doors and windows of people, faces, bodies and angel wings for good measure.
Media: Clay and terracotta.
Merging of buildings, doors and windows of people, faces, bodies and angel wings for good measure.
Media: Clay and terracotta.
"Apollo I" and "Apollo II", (2019)
For no reason that I could fathom, we had a bust of Apollo in our home. A cast, decapitated simile or the real statute. I had never been to the British museum or seen any Greek and Roman statutes. At 15 I went and spent the entire day in awe. These pieces are a pastiche. A kitsch observation of the home and objects within it. Apollo and the chase of Daphne became a fixation and a light of female empowerment as she changed and took control as she morphed into a bay tree.
Media: Apollo bought from charity shops, clay and caulk. Spray paint and books.
For no reason that I could fathom, we had a bust of Apollo in our home. A cast, decapitated simile or the real statute. I had never been to the British museum or seen any Greek and Roman statutes. At 15 I went and spent the entire day in awe. These pieces are a pastiche. A kitsch observation of the home and objects within it. Apollo and the chase of Daphne became a fixation and a light of female empowerment as she changed and took control as she morphed into a bay tree.
Media: Apollo bought from charity shops, clay and caulk. Spray paint and books.
"The duality of the chair", (2021)
Chairs are a fascination for me. A comfort or a reminder of absence. A fashion statement and / or working, functional piece of furniture. They represent the zeitgeist of the epoch. Brighton's chair museum remains a regular haunt. This chair, circa 1890 was given to me by a charity shop. Rotten and full of beetles. It was sprayed with anti wood infestation fluid and screwed back together. Then spiky bird defenders and angel wings were added.
Media: 1890 chair. Bird defenders, wood glue, screws, wood anti-pestilent and feathers.
Chairs are a fascination for me. A comfort or a reminder of absence. A fashion statement and / or working, functional piece of furniture. They represent the zeitgeist of the epoch. Brighton's chair museum remains a regular haunt. This chair, circa 1890 was given to me by a charity shop. Rotten and full of beetles. It was sprayed with anti wood infestation fluid and screwed back together. Then spiky bird defenders and angel wings were added.
Media: 1890 chair. Bird defenders, wood glue, screws, wood anti-pestilent and feathers.