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Artist statement -

My work is underpinned by a curiosity in materials, their characteristics, and applications. I am intrigued by how these are transformed by routine or unconventional use, across different disciplines. Paper, card, and textiles are ubiquitous in my previous career as a fashion designer. As in fashion, so it is the same in art and architecture; contemporary culture encourages the fetishizing of what are deemed desirable objects and experiences. My work attempts to add value or surprise to these banal materials to comment on aspiration and social mobility.  

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The use of abstract imagery intentionally references the language of urban architecture and of spaces identified as ‘Non Places’ by anthropologist Marc Auge in his essay of the same name. When young I nursed ambitions of becoming an architect.  and am especially attracted by the aesthetics employed in this discipline, particularly contemporary architecture. 

 

When approaching new work, a phrase from Rebecca Solnit's A Field Guide to Getting Lost (2005) inspires me....  the explorer 'ceased to be lost not by returning but by turning into something else'. It reminds me of the debt I owe my maternal grandmother who informally taught me sewing, textile repairs and the value of handiwork. These skills were considered essential for her generation of working-class women and mothers. I am proud to have elevated them into a career as a fashion designer and continue to recontextualise them in my art practice.

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