Artist Statement
I am entranced by the sensory and transformative qualities of viscous materials, ones which are constantly changing, evolving and resisting control. Wax and toffee are emblems for a form of non-binary thinking for they exist in an in-between state, shifting from solid to liquid and back again. The intelligence of the animated material world and its dense network of relations is advocated in contemporary material studies theories, which forms my research. These yielding substances are alluded to in my graphic, cartoon-like works on paper that resemble a 1980’s analogue cinema approach to gore, which embraces artifice in its use of sticky and slimy matter to evoke bodily fluids. Forms are transmuted to produce hybrid beings, advocating for the dissolution of the hierarchical attitudes towards species. The idealised image of the body that dominates visual culture is critiqued by presenting it in its wonderfully raw, alluring and disturbing state. The museological aspect to my practice reflects my interest in the fantastical nature of curiosity cabinets of the 16th and 17th centuries and the desire to fuse the clinical with the carnal. The nod to science fiction in my choice of garish colours blurs the distinction between the organic and the synthetic, propelling these sculptural pieces further into a bizarre terrain. Dark humour is used to deal with the compelling issues the body faces in times of rapid technological change and the absurd need we have as humans to contain, preserve and categorise nature. My practice is informed by feminist ethics of difference and the posthuman approach to human and non-human relationships, which suggest the boundaries between things are not so clear cut. Otherness is explored through humour and naïve representations, yet at the core lies a fundamental investigation into abjection