What is precious? What is important? what discarded unwanted? and why? These questions underpin the work I make and inform my use of materials.
For the past few years I have worked only in recycled or found materials, making sculpture and work in textiles that examines the human relationship with the past, looking at objects in museum collections; the reasons for collecting/keeping them, and their display. I am particularly interested in objects for which only fragments remain and the way in which archaeologists and curators attempt to re-construct and re-imagine them in use . My research further considers the stories these objects contain and any traces of human interactions that formed/inform them.
As a maker, I try to encapsulate these ideas into the pieces I make. My process uses stitch and costume making skills to construct 3D work led by the shapes and properties of the materials selected. Where I sometimes use fresh organic matter the fact that it will age, wither and die is absolutely pertinent to the work, describing as it does fragility, impermanence and change.
Having worked mostly in theatre, designing and making costume, my decision to only use scrap and discarded materials in my work is a way of addressing the unsustainable waste produced not only in that industry but by society. In contrast to my theatre work, the pieces I make are small, unassuming, quiet. They are often unplanned, exploring the materials, allowing them to speak for themselves, or interpreting thoughts and ideas through the objects by adding stitched text.
