BIO
BORN: 1999
FINE ART (MA)
DISTINCTION
Manchester Metropolitan University
2021-2022
Fine art (BA Hons)
First Class Honours
Falmouth University
2017-2020
STATEMENT
This work comes from a space that observes what is happening in the world around me, where subculture and high culture merge. I pull from material that simply interests me, conceptually, politically, and visually. The juxtaposition of different visual languages is a dominant theme, combining imagery from spheres that traditionally do not mix. Cultural concerns and an uninterrupted engagement with contemporary social and political issues catalyse the creative process.
There is a long history of artists who have connected with the events of the day. This is what I hope to achieve in my work. Willing to engage, unafraid of responding to our newspapers and culture. Society has regressed! Socially conscious - elements of my autobiographical background inevitably seep into the work in response to the times.
What exactly is this creature? A new archetype. My work represents an urban, modern female icon. The gods mark the ancient, all encapsulating the complicated, yet a beautiful concept of time. New gods, chthonic creatures connected to the earth and promoting reconnection between humans and the physical planet. These gods are modern, current, and differ from the traditional. My goddess is born out of chaos; A salty djinn, miko warrior, chthonic creature of the urban ocean. Fiery by nature with a badass persona and rebellious philosophy.
Imagery that has no shame, expressing a confidence in the self, how that presentation makes us feel and what it instils in others. Does that matter? These figures as an archetype are unapologetically urban and address ideas of what ‘woman’ is. My figures represent an urban, female icon that is modern yet possesses explicit Classical iconography.
The street space takes us back to the context of the urban space, a place for intervention. The work is assertively hybrid, suggesting a certain temporal hybridity that gives a city pace and its tendency to morph and ability to adapt. Rusty colours reference metal and a mechanical world, linking to decay, depreciation, and the discarded.
Aim to create powerful, intriguing, ambiguous and compelling work, my voice is engaged and finds its own way of making protest. My generation has intellectual resolve and determination. We persist and continue to make, despite the notion of existential ‘What’s the point?’ The skateboard becomes a metaphor, for escape, but also a vehicle on which you can navigate quickly, efficiently, and effectively. I feel there is something compelling about what I am doing, with a sense of balance, rhythm, and beauty along the way, and hopefully that doesn’t go amiss. I try to utilise beauty to articulate my point, as have many before me.
Exhibitions
Winter exhibition, Sixteen Gallery, Cheltenham. 2022