I returned to making after my father’s death, literally making myself better, to process loss and absence. Drawing on my lived experience of restorative making led to a residency in a hospice. We used natural materials from my allotment to make images and objects. I also began making botanical inks from wild plants removed to sustain my plot’s biodiversity.
I have often worked with overlooked or marginalised communities. Wild plants, considered ‘weeds’ by many, also occupy the edges, extending my practice at the margins to include the non-human.
Artwork
(your) absence is felt more than (your) presence
Repetitive, hand-made with few tools, tactile and portable, this was the piece that helped to ‘make myself better’ in the wake of loss. The content and method were restorative as i commuted to and from work.
Calico embroidered with matching silk thread, 20x20cm.
Residency
Making Time
St Mary’s Hospice, Birmingham
In 2019 I initiated a residency in a hospice to explore how making can help make sense of lived experience, support difficult conversations and offer new perspectives at a time of loss. It drew on my experience of restorative making, supporting staff and patients to produce images and objects. Works were installed around the site for quiet moments of contemplation, including cyanotypes output as window vinyls for privacy, a patient’s altered postcard collection next to the shop and tactile objects to handle whilst sitting in the conservatory.
Funded by Arts Council of England Project Grant
Artwork
All the off-cuts & left overs
Sometimes there’s a to and fro between my work and participatory projects. I collected scraps of hand-made felt that participants trimmed from their larger pieces.
hand-made merino felt on a white felted wool background. 40x30cm.
Artwork
I am Ivy
An ivy root bound in embroidery threads, inspired by Jackie Morris’ and Robert Macfarlane’s book “The Lost Words’.
Commission Walk
Tornado Tracers
Ikon Gallery & Still Walking Festival
In 2005 a tornado tore through South Birmingham, changing the landscape, land use and architecture. I was overseas at the time and saw photos of upturned cars, uprooted trees and the familiar streets of my home made unfamiliar.
13 years later i traced the path of the tornado to explore the lasting impacts, oin the context of the areas history. My research uncovered pre-industrial land use reflected in street names, architectural features from previous industrial periods nestled amongst residential dwellings, bombing patterns from WW2 that mirrored the route of the tornado.
The walk co-incided with Francis Alys’ exhibition ‘Knots & Dust’ at Ikon Gallery.
Participatory Project
This Way Up
Creative Health CIC, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Limewood Dementia Care Home
For a year I was part of a group of artists working with older people to introduce them to a range of creative processes in a range of settings. Some years earlier I worked as a support worker for older people with dementia. This experience helped me to rapidly build trust and rapport with residents at Limewood Dementia Care. Together we made a banner that held images from our conversations and their lives.
Residency
Sampling Sessions
Creative Health CIC, at Limewood Dementia Care Home
Following ‘This Way Up’ I was invited to work with residents over several months. We painted, collaged, stitched and felted together to make personalised images for the home rather than ‘off the shelf’ prints.
Watching how residents worked sometimes I tried their techniques at home, mostly i found ways to support them to get involved and try something new; the to and fro of co-creation.
Commission
Re-present
The People’s History Co-op
Commemerating the centenary of The Representation of the Peoples Act (1918), I co-created a banner with the Attwood Green Lunch Club. Memebers had researched in the archives at The Library of Birmingham and drew parallels between the regeneration of Attwood Green and the changes brought by increased voting rights.
Their memories were embroidered, applique’d and written into the banner to make it interactive as it toured around schools and community centres.
