Installations

Sand

Sand Commissioned by Art Connections for North Yorkshire Open Studios 2010

Numerous & various shoes of sand started to populate Whitby beach & promenade. Chanced upon unawares they immediately engaged the public who helped cast yet more multiple pairs & create small scenarios using the moulds of real shoes provided. The sand shoes advanced in unison with the tides & then were washed away to become one with the sands from which they were formed. This cyclic process of creation & destruction helped visitors reflect on the passage & mutability of time and brought to mind all those holiday makers who had walked & played on the sands before them.

Distant Shores

Commissioned by Magnetic Events with Dodgy Clutch Theatre Company for Odin’s Glow 2009

Our installation recreated the first encounter of two very different cultures & peoples. The Pacific Islanders on first sighting Capt. Cook’s invading ship with it’s large white sails mistook it for their exiled God Lono who they believed would return in the form of a great white bird.
A miniature settlement of huts on stilts is seen on an island across the water alongside native canoes and sailing vessels. From a distant shore the Endeavor approaches to the sound of Polynesian chants of greeting.

Source

Commissioned by Art Connections for North Yorkshire Open Studios 2009.

An experimental new work for the crypt of St-Martin-on-the-Hill, Scarborough. Visitors entered the subterranean depths to discover the ‘Source’: An inverted tree root system was suspended above a pool where steadily dripping water created ripples of reflected light with amplified sound.
Video loops of radiating patterns of water was projected upon the walls of a deep tunnel. A distant reflection of the observer’s face appeared at the end of a long ladder receding into darkness. Pin pricks of light illuminated falling streams of silver sand, marking the passage of time.

Waves

Developed during Artist’s Residency with the Centre for Performance Research, 2007/2008
Shown at ‘Giving Voice’ Aberystwyth University 2008 & ‘Coastival’ Scarborough 2009

Travelling between the west coast of Wales & my home on the east coast, the sea became a constant & reassuring presence. I started to associate the rhythm of waves with that of our breath, both capable of either calming or exciting emotions.
A high contrast black & white film of the sea is projected on to four horizontal layers of translucent material to create a convincing illusion of the waves’ ebb & flow away & towards the audience.
The scale reinforces its bodily impact while a recording of human breath reverberates in unison with the ocean in all its moods from tranquil to turbulent.

Watch Film

Breath

Developed during Artist’s Residency with the Centre for Performance Research, 2007/2008
Shown at ‘Giving Voice’ Aberystwyth University 2008

An exploration, in visual mixed media, of breath, its gentleness & strength & as an influence of calm in times of stress.
Silk hangings developed from text ‘I shall speak to the air’ Pundi Acharya with original photograph from the CPR Archives.
‘Tread Softly’ – Stones from Aberystwyth beach sandblasted with words from poem by W.B. Yeats.
Flying Music – Manuscripts of Georgian polyphonic songs printed onto architect’s tracing paper.

Graves & Garlands

Artist’s Residency, funded by the Arts Council & supported by the Churches Conservation Trust 2007

Inside St. Stephen’s church hang rare and fragile maidens’ garlands while outside a ‘sea’ of graves overlooks Robin Hoods Bay. The work created, from delicate origami to carved beach stones, evoked the lost lives and poignant stories contained in these memorials. Reflecting on personal bereavement, the pieces were both contemplative and celebratory. Visitors to the church were encouraged to write a tribute to someone close that was incorporated into the final installation. The residency concluded with a ceremony during which racing pigeons were released from the graveyard.