Biography
Flirting with sexuality, sex and the ageing body, the work plays with opposites, hard and soft - steel wool, metal clips and paint combined with soft fabrics create an unease and tension, the beautiful versus the grotesque. The work has investigated entropy and decay. Elemental, raw and naked, often heightened by a soft ‘cosmetic’ palette of pinks, ivories, and flesh tones the work utilizes everyday materials, for example, velvet, putty, synthetic hair, Lycra, rubber, cosmetics and paint. Using low-tech 'craft' processes, the materials are deliberately manipulated and re-configured yet remain 'of the body'. Sculptures become stretched, nailed into walls or bound tight whilst others are allowed to sag, droop and flop down walls. The pieces can appear beautiful and witty, yet evoke a sadness and a sense of loss.
Recent work takes a ‘crafted’ sculptural drawn line, and is an exploration of material and process. Traditional techniques are employed and worked for many months in a repetitive, almost metronomic manner, reminiscent of working in a steelworks (evoking childhood memories growing up in a steel city), the materials used are both of the domestic but resemble the industrial, metallic and raw yet giving the appearance of something both fragile and delicate. Using performance, installation, sculpture and drawing, the elements are formed within and occupy the space, the work often defined by its context.
