I'm drawn to the transformation I'm drawn to the shamanistic I'm drawing to
the totem I'm drawn to that; a lot of the subject matter that I probably have been
introduced to through studying anthropology when I was on my first BA
it's not that I'm saying 'oh salamander', 'oh a moth' it's it's that I'm
into the poetry I'm into the the desire to be other. I really enjoy laughing.
I really enjoy having fun I would never try to set aside humor I'd always want
to naturally have it as an ingredient. And then I also think it's, or maybe it's
linked to possibly magic realism, the sort of Latin American literature and
the idea of sort of heavy subjects, but with - with elements of sort of magic and
narrative so it's, I would say I am definitely interested in the mixture of
those qualities and naturally irreverent to some extent to stuffiness and
establishment. I've started to make a lot of the energy and massive sort of
excitement of the performances slightly contained within a panel. So I've gone and
wallpaper the backdrop image onto a wooden panel and then I've made sort of
a system of pegs so that you can then attach the prop or the costume or the art
object onto the panel and the nice thing about it is that it seems to give a
wildness and expressiveness a chance of being almost packaged but not stifled
The works that I was drawn to use in the on the panels from the Scottish National
Gallery collection; they are in this incredible collection the Scottish
National Gallery has a great collection it's huge. There's a sort of pastoral
collection by Boucher and I really enjoy them because they're quite, in my mind
exciting or sumptuous images from art history that I would
naturally be drawn to. The Lanternfly is an example of me making an object and
attaching it to the panel and the Lanternfly in my mind is as romantic as
the pastoral scene. It's modeled from a small, beautiful insect that actually
could be seen to be a little bit comic. When there's a subject matter that's
quite serious I've put it, matched it with an animal audience to put it down.
In this exhibition there's a really fun panel which is really exuberant and
buoyant and boisterous because it has these salamanders on it that are bright red
they have yellow spots and they also are literally bouncing off the surface on
metal attachments. It is in a goofy way through conversations and discourses
around, even, the relationship between 2D and 3D, and when something qualifies
as a painting or not. I like just having fun and on a simple level it's also
pragmatic that there is a total pragmatic rational self where I'm
economising, I'm thinking of the environment I'm green politics, I'd say
I'm trying to make the most effective, ambitious, flamboyantly uplifting kind of
expressive work, but within a containable, economic, resourceful medium.
To be versatile and to be an eclectic artist what the outcome is, is that you're
not shaping or only working with one material or one form of outcome.
What you're doing is, is holding an idea in your mind and understanding whether it
would be appropriate to make it as a live exploding celebratory performance
or would it be better and more effective to communicate it in a quiet
self-contained painting form that's almost pocket-sized, or would it be
appropriate to be gestural with it on camera
cleverly some filmic way and like it's a kind of - it's all puzzles
and problem-solving but a lot of the time it's instinctive.
They're hopefully fun and funny and light and buoyant and morale-lifting;
all of those elements are things I would want till I die to contribute to