Coloured Papers, 2018
These three collages were all inspired by forms from buildings in Walthamstow, discovered whilst working on the ‘Beauty and Incident’ show at the William Morris Gallery. They use shapes from local buildings including the ‘Temple of Truth’, the old cinema ‘Mirth’, and cross shaped anchor wall plates.
Cut outs, photocopies, foil paper, 2013
This piece came together whilst playing around with some left over cutouts from around the studio. The red photocopies were made from pictures of an old engine and together the colours and forms seemed to work in tandem with the figure.
Foil wrapping paper, pianola roll, 2014
When I was younger we had some French neighbours who had a grand old pianola which you had to play by pushing down bellows with your feet. By some kind of magic the instrument would play melodies from these tiny dots of music notation. I was always fascinated by it, so bought some old rolls and cut them up. I think I’d been travelling a lot at the time, and again it was just a playful moment where the rhythms of these shapes seemed to flow.
Collage with photocopies, fabric, 2014
I had recently acquired an old photocopier which I had great fun with in my studio under the railway arches at Loughborough Junction. The face in this image is from a Robert Mapplethorpe portrait of Carolina Herrera, and was combined with a photocopy from an African fabric pattern, found in Brixton Market. The shapes from the pattern felt like Medusa’s head of snakes, whilst at the same time became a river of tears. This was a difficult time for me , and I guess somewhere in there is a self portrait of a kind.
Coloured photocopies, paper, 2014
This collage came about after watching the film of ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’, featuring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. The story follows them as middle aged couple Martha and George, and their dysfunctional relationship. I wanted this collage to capture not this story, but something around the destructive dynamics and mind games that can occur in relationships.
Paper, photocopies, cut outs, 2012
‘Sheer Essence’ is a phrase from Milan Kundera’s book Immortality. The novel is essentially a search for understanding the meaning of life, questioning the idea of self, and what is at your core. This collage uses the head of Michelangelo’s David as the classic representation of the human figure. A knife that has cut out all the borrowed and exterior elements that create an individual, trying to reveal the ‘sheer essence’ of the person underneath.