“Travel light. She extended her arms to embrace her house, maybe even the whole world.” Junot Diaz

Dust can be seen as a symbolic aspect of our transgression through life, something to memorialise time. Dust accumulates in the spaces we live in; it is the dirt that collects under our nails, the masses of flowers left in cemeteries, the coins left over from our travels across countries. My practice follows a traditional route of sculpture making transposed with metaphysical research into The House as body, object and space.

My practice follows a traditional route of sculpture making alongside research into metaphysical philosophy. I have been very drawn to mastering techniques of traditional sculptural practices, working with clay busts to then plaster cast, learning how to observe the human form from distance to translate again through the hand.

My research focuses on looking into how we navigate the spaces in which we inhabit particularly the home, how we move through these spaces, how we interact with domestic objects. I want to further explore the dialogue between objects of use which have been manipulated into something unusable.

I am interested in the liminality of things having explored this through photography, the collection of found materials and using my body as a physical material. I have been collecting my nails, hair, egg shells things described as the abject when removed from their original ‘source’. I take a pseudo-analytical approach to analyse how we navigate the spaces in which we inhabit. My work has something to do with the macabre, I am interested in how the human body is framed within our material surroundings for example in the domestic sphere, in objects such as chairs, beds, brooms, cutlery, hand tools, the list goes on.

Portrait of My Father is a visual-poem of a loved one in sculptural form. The thin clay chair only stands because each piece is supporting and balancing itself. The photo featured is from the group show Epilogue, Pipe Factory, December 18th 2022. There is a beauty in the manipulation of the objects which surround us everyday. It causes one to pause to reencounter the mundane object and contemplate with a sense of wonder.

Another vital aspect of my time at The Glasgow School of Art has been the exploration into event organising, curation and being co-director of The House. As a grassroots gallery and project space, The House began in the winter of 2020. Growing out of the necessity as the pandemic saw the doors to the Art School close. Jack Iredale and myself felt a need to keep creative conversations moving, in the midst of isolation, forming a community space aimed at hosting artists and musicians beyond the Institution. In July 2022, the venue was tragically burnt down via petrol bomb…

You can find our retrospective exhibit about The House on the first floor in the Stow College in the collaborative space.

A Manifesto of The House:

Small Spaces for Large Use.
This is an attempt to hold space,
A reclaiming of ground, a leap of faith from the institutions roof.
Pushed to the edge by its bureaucratic silence.
Not but one one radical bone left in its body,
The money did away with that.

The spineless waiter serves for a hefty tip.
And we have no money. So go on working,
Interrogating, laughing,
questioning.
Follow this enquiry of yours, it’s the most important thing there is.
We wish to support you as much as time permits.
And we have time.

April 2022

“If you engage in travel, you will arrive.”

“The Universe continues to be in the present tense.” Ibn Arabi, 1165-1240