Collection Statement

Inspired by Wapping foreshore, my work guides matter into new forms. It is rooted thematically in the process of alchemy and nods to the necessity of connecting to our ancestors in the contemporary digital realm.

Buried, fragmented or forgotten foreshore objects contain traces of past lives and are metaphors for repressed or ‘shadow’ aspects of the psyche. When they interact with plaster - a healing ‘cast’ - they become whole and are revealed as valuable.  Using papier-mâché subverts traditional material hierarchies in which the weighty and 'masculine' outrank the lowbrow, domestic 'feminine', reflecting my attempt to transform the burden of repression and trauma into something ‘light’ through material reclamation.

The shore location is a cauldron within which an ‘archaeology of soul’ takes place. This liminal space is alluded to as sculptures on metal stands rise from a ring of sand, tracing the (r)evolution of a laughing gas canister from a buried/wounded to a valued/healed object. A video of my shoreline dancing represents me taking responsibility for my own healing, no longer hiding behind symbolic objects as surrogates.  A cyanotype depicting five female forms honours those who were drowned as witches. Their celestial whispers as if from the water’s depths fill the space, demanding to be heard.

The collection points to a matrixial, circular approach to healing that reconnects humans to one another, to nature and to our past, creating an invitation of eco-somatic reawakening.