INSTALLATION

'Hope', 2018.

I exhibited 'Hope', consisting of over a 100 handmade paper roses, at the World Transformed Festival in 2018. The piece hung above people's heads within one of the art buildings which hosted talks, creative workshops and musical performances. From a distance the newspaper and red roses seem randomly placed but as you get closer and directly underneath, it transforms into the word hope. The red roses were showing my support for the labour party, using their emblem and the newspaper roses represent the mainstream media. This piece was a visual representation that leadership can come in unexpected places but when we join together and don't allow ourselves to be brainwashed by the mainstream media, we are able to find hope and can build a better future for the many not the few.

'Slice', 2014.

‘Slice’ is a durational installation that combines sculptures, films, photographs and sound. It depicts an emotional response to illness, specifically skin cancer, influenced by my mother’s diagnosis. It aims to convey the fear, the hope but also the harsh realities of this serious illness, in a manner that enables the audience to recognise these responses and apply their own experiences. The work portrays the contrast between a safe and stable home environment, and the disruption illness brings, causing pain and uncertainty within this setting. This manifests in a bedroom that allows the audience to rest and get comfortable. The walls surrounding the bed contain photographs, films, and sculptures, whilst a song plays from within a pillow, all of which corrupt this safe environment. The title, ‘Slice’, denotes the slice that one is gaining of my life on entering the room, but also the slices into my mother’s flesh needed to remove her tumours.

Although ‘Slice’ uses my personal experience of my mother’s skin cancer diagnosis to capture particular feelings, it is not merely autobiographical. The overriding purpose of ‘Slice’ is to unite my audience through shared difficult experiences, by offering a space for the audience to reflect on their own struggles with illness. However, each medium holds much more specific aims. The sculptures focus on natural decay; the decay over time is a visual demonstration of the transformation of sun damage. The films visually explore heat transformation, also as a symbol of sun damage. The photographs are of wounds and scars on my mother as a result of skin cancer. There is also an opportunity for audiences to ‘Share your experiences with illness, either personally or of significant others’ to emphasise the importance of shared struggles. Above you are able to see the many people contributions audience members wanted to make in form of notes on the cork board to the left of the frames images.

'Passing on', 2013.

‘Passing On’ is a personal reflection of death and its impact on both the individual and the world. Society fears death, people shield it from the young and it continues to be an avoided topic. I personally believe the likelihood is that there is no god and therefore no life after death. Therefore the purpose of ‘Passing On’ is for the audience to look upon death in perhaps a new way, that your life doesn’t loose significance even if experiences only lasts until you die, and that just because your individual life may not live on, you can find solace in giving back to nature and become part of the cycle of life.

There are three main components to ‘Passing On’; firstly the paper flower ball, situated beneath the bleeding heart; this is both an interpretation of a memorial demonstrating the personal significance of the individual dying, whilst denoting the new life and colour that the blood gives to the flowers indicates that the dying heart gives vibrancy and new life to the nature it rots underneath. The memorial ball is made up of white paper roses, as white roses are traditionally given to commemorate someone’s death. Whilst the paper mirrors the sense that old life can give life in a new form.

The second component is the bleeding heart, which is symbolic of someone dying. White felt is used for the heart, as the childlike quality of the material is intended to link to the view that creating stories for life after death can be seen as a childlike process. Additionally the white was selected as it stays with the theme of the memorial ball whilst exaggerating the blood with its stark contrast.

Thirdly the metaphorical string cage; the ribbon barrier around the rest of the piece is a metaphor of society's obstructed view on death, and inability to ever fully confront the reality of death. Made from string similarly to the reasons that felt is used for the heart as again is a material used by children for their creations.