I'd like to describe myself as a visual artist I'm really interested
in contradiction and paradox and how that really speaks to our wider culture
Yeah we've just had a conversation with the gulls and we're in Lisa and Mark's
fabrication studio
It's been really lovely working with Lisa and Mark When I first started
the residency in Spike we got to know each other a bit and we've been working ever since together
I tend to collect things wherever I am and that's become part of how the work gets made
as well a bit like a magpie
I collect stacks of vegetable trays and food trays and I've
used dried flowers quite a lot in some work I've used dust and a lot of detritis a lot of rubbish
so it could be organic or it can be some kind of manufactured thing
It did become a problem though
when I was flying from one country to the other or even if you go into government buildings and the
alarm system would go off because I had scissors and tweezers and other odd paraphernalia in my bag
My mum makes all these pincushions, has hundreds of pincushions and so
I asked my mum if I could have some and then I've made other pincushions
and then I've made a dot in the middle
because I like the way the dot begins to look like a belly button
My mum always embroidered our pillowcases when we were little and we didn't really seem to have
very much in the house when I was little I just remember these patchworks that my mum made
and embroidered pillowcases
When my mum was a girl they would get cotton sacks and then
they'd wash them until they were soft enough to use as pillowcases and so I kind of extended that
to the idea of pillows, dream states and what kind of dreams you have so the Relics was also thinking
about loss and memories and kind of dislocated states and kind of disintegration and so on
Well
one of the ways that I found I could keep working when I'm travelling is
if I'm sewing or crocheting I make sure that I'm travelling somewhere on public transport
where I have privacy because people could stare at you and want to know what you're
doing or just you know be intrusive so it's important to get on with things
Last week when I was here someone
had spilled quite a lot of red wine I think it was after a busy drinking session over there
The project in Hackney around Windrush I wanted it to be a celebratory work my parents came
to England in the 50s so I have early memories of going to Ridley Road Market
mostly because my mother always met her friends
It's interesting that I've chosen those particular
fruit and veg because they're what my mom what she ate when she was pregnant with me
I like the idea that I might have internalised
these particular soursop, custard apple and breadfruit
I like the idea that you know there's this whole side of nurture and healing and mother
and daughter relationships and intergenerational information being passed on
Every time I'm in
Hackney I'm always fascinated because children just sit on them and they climb on them and
I really like that that there's a serious conversation around the work but then there's
this possibility for play and that children are learning about structures and sculpture and about
foods from the place that their parents come from so they connect them on lots of different levels