'The Wicker Nan' was created during the Summer Camp micro-residency at Eastside Projects, Birmingham (25-28 July 2023), based on an emerging idea about grandmothers and our individual and collective relationships with them. I wanted to make a celebratory and inclusive figure from traditional materials, and I was extremely fortunate to be put in touch with Iris Bertz, a Birmingham-based master basket weaver and woman of many talents, at just the right time. I had envisaged making the piece as a costume for a performance, but as the week went on in it became apparent that my idea for that aspect was not well-formed enough, so I focused on building more meaning into the figure itself. A poem shared by fellow resident Tomilola Olumide was just the right nudge for the idea of putting some creative and literal eggs into a basket. The Wicker Nan was in the end a wearable costume, but I presented her as a static object, biding her time.
All the eggs that a woman is born with are fully formed when she is a 20 week old foetus inside her mother's uterus, meaning that we all start out half-formed in our maternal grandmothers. Not all of those eggs will mature, and of those that do, not all will result in a conception and a birth. This idea of potential stored within potential within the grandmother's body led me to put my first willow sculpture inside the Wicker Nan, and then to make egg-like structures to put inside her. The willow eggs rest on a bed of short cut twigs that represent all the other the eggs that did not mature, or that were shed, based on my own mother's fertility statistics. One of the eggs is potentially me.
The underlying ideas continue to develop, alongside the OestroDolls work, as I explore themes of motherhood and grandmotherhood alongside folk traditions relating to women, moving into my own Crone Era. Expect more willow, memories and witchery in 2024!
All the eggs that a woman is born with are fully formed when she is a 20 week old foetus inside her mother's uterus, meaning that we all start out half-formed in our maternal grandmothers. Not all of those eggs will mature, and of those that do, not all will result in a conception and a birth. This idea of potential stored within potential within the grandmother's body led me to put my first willow sculpture inside the Wicker Nan, and then to make egg-like structures to put inside her. The willow eggs rest on a bed of short cut twigs that represent all the other the eggs that did not mature, or that were shed, based on my own mother's fertility statistics. One of the eggs is potentially me.
The underlying ideas continue to develop, alongside the OestroDolls work, as I explore themes of motherhood and grandmotherhood alongside folk traditions relating to women, moving into my own Crone Era. Expect more willow, memories and witchery in 2024!
'Oestrodolls: Braido, Habetrot, Mother Night, Cattern and Lilith' 2023, with 'OestroGel Diary' 2023 in the background
Two new and inter-related projects about hormones and archetypes. These witch dolls are constructed around empty Oestrogel bottles, which are a biohazard if improperly discarded. Each doll represents a mythical or historical female character, so I might make a book about them. The method of making depends on the character and on what materials I have available. I am trying to use up my existing art supplies before buying anything new. I am making 28 dolls at this size, and then I'll see where they take me. (The 'OestroGel Diary' collage project also has links with the Medicated Bodies theme.)
Two new and inter-related projects about hormones and archetypes. These witch dolls are constructed around empty Oestrogel bottles, which are a biohazard if improperly discarded. Each doll represents a mythical or historical female character, so I might make a book about them. The method of making depends on the character and on what materials I have available. I am trying to use up my existing art supplies before buying anything new. I am making 28 dolls at this size, and then I'll see where they take me. (The 'OestroGel Diary' collage project also has links with the Medicated Bodies theme.)
'Carcass' has been WIP since 2017 and an earlier version was exhibited in 2018. It started out in the mould I used for some earlier resin pieces, and then when it was solid enough it became freeform. It is built of layers of different kinds of paper-based personal documentation, collaged over each other with wallpaper paste. This version has a top layer of the Post-it notes I used to record my body composition from 2015 to 2018, a habit I started in my bodybuilding era. The work will be finished when it is 163cm long (my height) and the final layers will be made of the list of its contents. It is an archive that keeps the layers of my history safe, and that would be destroyed by any efforts to access it. The construction process is meditative and soothing, although it seems never ending. It is a burden I will gladly put down.
'Carcass' is part of a much larger ongoing project called 'Seven Sisters', which will have a webpage of its own later this year, because it is going to be my first solo exhibition.
'Carcass' is part of a much larger ongoing project called 'Seven Sisters', which will have a webpage of its own later this year, because it is going to be my first solo exhibition.
This is a panel from my graphic memoir 'All the Dead Dogs', started in 2018 and progressing rather slowly. It's a family history focusing on the periods when we had dogs (and one cat), narrated from the point of view of myself at the time (or as close as I can get to those memories).
I restarted it in 2020, when I was properly recovered from neck surgery and could draw small again. I have two zine issues completed, out of a planned 16, and then I will collect them into a graphic novel (probably in around 2028 unless I speed up). I love planning the layouts and making the drawings, but the storyline is occasionally challenging to work with, hence the slow progress.
I restarted it in 2020, when I was properly recovered from neck surgery and could draw small again. I have two zine issues completed, out of a planned 16, and then I will collect them into a graphic novel (probably in around 2028 unless I speed up). I love planning the layouts and making the drawings, but the storyline is occasionally challenging to work with, hence the slow progress.