Statement
My practice considers how art rituals can develop bonds of kinship and care across species via differing modes of exchange.
Working with plant, earth and body matter, alongside mechanical and organic processes, my work acknowledges the porous boundaries between human and non-human bodies. The resulting relics enact their own histories and operate in a hybrid space combining the graphic, mechanical and technological, with the organic and temporal life processes.
I am particularly interested in making contact with the overlooked and my current work honours our relations with stinging nettles, considering the gifts they provide, as well as our shared attributes. Our bodies are fibrous, pigmented and leaky; we respire, digest and decay together, leaving many traces.
Through slow making and intimate ritual encounters, the work brings the human body back in touch with the nettle’s, in an attempt to restore bonds of care and to promote mutual well-being and healing.
CV
Born Lincoln, 1977. Currently living and working in West Dorset.
Education
BA (Hons) Painting (First Class) – University for the Creative Arts (OCA)
BA (Hons) English Literature – Winchester University
Exhibitions
2024 Curious Space: Transitions in Landscape, Willesden Gallery, London
2024 Showcase, OCA, online exhibition
2024 Dorset Visual Arts Emerging Group, Wirth Gallery, Sherbourne
2024 Sustainability Open, Atkinson Gallery, Street
2023 (Solo) How Like A Leaf, Eype Centre for the Arts, Bridport
2019 Osmosis, The Island Gallery, Bristol
2018 Showcase, OXO Gallery, London
2018 Work In Progress, Old Brick Workshop, Wellington
Grants / Awards:
2024 Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust Award
2023 Gane Trust
Publications:
2023 Illustrations for The Quiet Moon by Kevin Parr, Flint Books
Sue Parr 