The work sits somewhere between the recognisable and the unexpected. Through my practice I examine the relationship between the incidental and the laboured, intention and accident. 

 

My process oscillates between very high speed working and very slow speed working. There is a tension between a robustness and a frailty  in the resulting works. There is a need for me to work with materials with which I am not familiar. Learning and unlearning skills and techniques so that they feel ‘new’ to me is important. Engrained in the work is the concept of ‘Truth to materials’. 

 

It is important for me to access a moment not caught up in the normal thought process, where real creativity can happen unencumbered by logic and the rational brain. I can then be powered by instinct. It is simultaneously conscious and unconscious. Knowing and not knowing. Often short-lived and precious, it is almost as if these moments are marked by the making of a piece of work which allows me to keep a physical memento of it. 

 

The choices I make with regard to materials are crucial and often made on impulse. Somewhere in the process I am able to separate the initial spark of an idea from objective references and allow the piece to become an object in its own right, almost creating itself. I am interested in the notion of relinquishing some control of the process  and playing with the balance of power between the materials and the maker.

 

I work with and against the materials, in a mess of trying to figure something out whilst making it. The complex mixture of feelings and emotions encountered on this journey are embedded in the work.

 

I use a variety of materials and techniques, as well as working in a variety of different frames of mind or temperaments. I enjoy Tapping in to worthy old fashioned practices such as mending, as well as more immediate ways of binding objects together such as using gaffer tape.

 

 

I see the process itself as one of the materials. I explore how much to intervene with the material and how much to leave it to its' own tendency and gravitational behaviour. In the making of the work I have developed a set of self imposed rules or preferences, which means that a certain level of control is bestowed on the materials. I leave space for their autonomy. The end result is a visual narrative of this process. Failure is a crucial part of my practice and accepting this allows me to treat my materials with a level of risk and experimentation.