I strongly believe that art has a key role to play in reflecting and influencing the world we live in. In my view current populist rhetoric is making us lose touch with our humanity - putting personal and local interests above empathy for those who should be supported by society and local communities.
My practice is focused on homelessness in the UK, in order to raise awareness of a social issue which moves me personally and which I believe is not generally understood.
I base my work on research carried out on the streets of London, from first hand accounts written by those directly affected and by contact with charities involved in the sector. Homelessness is a complex subject, described by Lord Bird, the founder of The Big Issue, as the social iceberg. My aim is to provoke thought and discussion on what is below the surface in society with the hope that greater understanding will avoid the dehumanisation that surrounds the area.
I work principally through installations which can include sculpture, moving image, collage and photography. This has developed during my MA, before which I principally worked in still and moving images and projection. My studies have helped me to develop a greater awareness and use of space that installations provide. I seek to create images and evoke emotions which generate interest and discussion on the subject matter.
The obvious gap between wealth and poverty on London streets was the basis for my installation Hang Out The Bags. The hanging sleeping bags from flagstaffs aims to draw the viewer’s attention to the disparity between the symbolic flags that hang outside hotels, offices and government buildings that can loom over people begging or sleeping on the streets.
Working as a volunteer at St Mungo’s charity, I got the chance to speak to members of the community. The sentence “my partner got cancer and died, so I lost my home” showed how quickly life can change. The gradual opening of a suspended metal band in Unsprung is intended to express this fragility of existence and fear from living on my streets has influenced my work.
I have also had the benefit of working with Chris Bird, a poet and artist, who formerly was an addict living around Holborn while he was undiagnosed as schizophrenic. Both reading his work and meeting him has opened my eyes to the truly dreadful nature of a life in a spiral of mental health problems, addiction and homelessness. The film and installation Camp Destruction are a collaboration; with Chris reading his poetry in the square where he used to stay, over my visual and sound interpretation.
My research has led me to discussions with the founders of The Museum of Homelessness. With their direct and indirect experience of the community, they have set up the museum to promote activism, give direct support, build a historical archive and give performative stories to raise awareness.
My latest project Iceberg #1,is influenced by the Museum’s report on the number of deaths (1474) of people while living on the streets or in temporary accommodation in 2023. This work combines sculptural wire shapes with multiple pieces of hanging crochet made of a variety of materials (ranging from yarn to wire). It isintended to be contemplative, reflecting my own emotions as I learned to crochet and put the individual crochets on the wire.
Having studied the way that homelessness has been represented in art, I wish to adopt an ethical and humanitarian approach to the subject that captures the viewer’s attention. I admire the work undertaken by truly socially engaged artists, particularly those who have very recent experience of being on the streets. I am looking from another angle, having experienced a very different and privileged life, from which I can apply my knowledge of the often uninformed members of society and their attitudes to homelessness.
I like to work with found objects in combination with materials that may not be necessarily associated. In particular, my preference is to manipulate metal or wire as I feel more emotionally connected with the work, rather than something produced by or with a machine or computer.
My own personal development in studying the topic was encouraged by reading Judith Butler’s Giving an Account of Oneself and Donna Haraway’s description of situated knowledges. This has encouraged me to research a subject which I feel passionate about and which is so far from my own experience.
Before developing this practice I had a career in the law, after which I studied for a BA in Photography with the University of Kent. I am currently studying for a MA in Contemporary Photography; Practices and Philosophies at Central St Martins, UAL.
