Biography
I studied Architecture at the University of Nottingham graduating from the Diploma with a Distinction. It was at University that I started to develop my geometric experiments by setting functioning musical strings against twisting, wooden armatures. A piece of my student work (Nicodean Apparatus 5) was selected for the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition in 2011. The renowned art critic Brian Sewell rated the piece as one of his top ten works of the Summer Exhibition in article for the Evening Standard. Since graduating from University in 2011, I have continued my journey of making and incorporated new mediums into my working methods including blow moulded glass and illumination. In 2012 I have been busy exhibiting across the UK at shows such as The Cork Street Open, The Other Art Fair and have recently returned from my first international show at the GAA Amsterdam Showcase.
Recently, I have been working on 3 different series incorporating blow moulded glass vessels: the Balletic Goniometers, Ligament Goniometers and Tendon Goniometers. They are all devices or measuring apparatuses that use tension, resonance and light to test the deteriorating flexibility in a ballet dancer's joints, ligaments and tendons. They interact with the creaking and crunching of the petrifying joints. Henri Bergson in his 'Essay on the Meaning of the Comic' writes of a duality in the human form between a 'graceful, supple soul' that is “subject to no law of gravitation”, and a 'mechanical, petrifying body' which holds it back. These resonant machines provide a geometric analysis of how this petrifying body thwarts the fleeting soul of a ballet performer as they grow older and the mechanisms of their joints become worn. The musical strings are attached to the blow molded glass vessels and can be tuned by adjusting the level of water inside the glass. This creates an adjustable sound-box which can be calibrated to the weight of each ballet dancer. All of the different interactive variables enable the observer to experiment with their own geometric taste whilst they measure the dwindling flexibility of the ballet dancer.
