As an artist photography is integral to my practice. Initial photo images evolved out of projected threads, hair, chemical impressions of knotted and bound cloth. This was my route into photography as a Textiles student at Goldsmiths. My degree show (1985) was in fact notable for its absence of ‘textiles’. The activity of making, however, has never left me. My visual work is studio based and uses layered, assembled and fabricated matter, bits and pieces. These intended temporary works are recorded using mostly digital photography and discarded.
In recent work ‘Threshold’ the process of making is essentially intuitive. Fed by memory, emotional responses, reverie. Materials used are inherently fragile. Paper, hair, graphite and other detritus. In sufficient quantity to cover the floor of the studio the piece was photographed from time to time as it altered. Hair has associations with loss and mourning and has been used as ‘momento mori’ in the form of hair bracelets, necklaces and earrings since the late 17th century. Its use tends to re-occur in my work.
Hair also has a rich symbolism and significance. In sympathetic magic a person could be harmed if their hair was cut, damaged or carelessly thrown away. Hair (and nails) might fall into the hands of witches and required that it should be burnt or destroyed. A superstition states that hair should be cut with the waxing or waning moon. And that it continues to grow after death.
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M.A. (Fine Art) University of Plymouth, 2000
Post-graduate Diploma in Women’s Studies University of Plymouth, 1995
B.A. (Hons) Textiles (1st Class) Goldsmiths College, University of London, 1985
South West Arts Awards, Photography/Mixed Media, 1990, 1993 Research visit to St. Ursula’s Shrine, Cologne
‘Fragile Icons’published in ‘Intimations of Mortality’, 1994 Arts Council/Available Light
Key exhibitions – ‘Our bodies, Ourselves’, Castle Museum and Gallery, Nottingham, Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, 1994 Exhibition by eleven practitioners examining health and sickness through photographic images
Teaching – Further and Higher Education until 2002, Photography, Fine Art, Textiles Non teaching experience includes Art therapy and Art Workshops, Mental Health, Learning Disabilities Artist and practitioner. Lives and works in Plymouth, Devon
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