Artist Statement
I am a visual artist working in sculpture and installation, based in Kent. My work explores human/non-human cross-species relationships through hybrid sculptural forms. I am particularly interested in the entanglements between humans and livestock, and the surprising ways that non-human agency can arise through these connections. ‘Do Animals Work?’ is the title of an essay by Vinciane Despret, who investigates the ways in which dairy cows can be regarded as workers. This philosophical and ethological enquiry has driven my current work on the labour, agency and visibility of non-humans.
A recent series of works are the ‘Pelt’ sculptures – cowhide forms made from used hi-vis workwear. These objects bear the tarmac scuffs of their previous life in enigmatic gestures and marks across their surface. I deconstruct these garments and reconfigure them into abstract compositions of fluorescent colour and reflective lines. These objects are both alluring and unsettling; the image of a pelt implies brutality (who gets to keep their skin and who loses theirs?) but also utility – animal hides were used for the earliest human clothing and shelter.
Diverse materiality is at the core of my practice; solidified cows’ milk, beef tallow, sheep’s fleece and recycled hi-visibility workwear are used to make partially abstracted, creaturely forms. I am currently working on a new series of large milk sculptures that plays with ideas of purity and contamination, and attempts to re-enliven the animality of this ubiquitous substance.
I often make work that responds to a specific place. In 2024 I was commissioned by Rotherham Arts, Museums and Heritage to co-create an installation with the local community in the 19th century ‘Waterloo Kiln’. The shapes and colours of the resulting sculptures were directly informed by the neo-Rococo pottery that was once created at the site. In 2023 I did an artist residency at Cambridge Artworks, where I explored the intersections of the surrounding chalk geology and the local folklore. This culminated in an exhibition in 2024 titled ‘GOGMAGOG’. Lastly, in 2022 I created an installation commissioned by Vehicle Arts in the foyer space of Curve Theatre in Leicester, inspired by the local geology.
Education
University of North Carolina at Greensboro. USA. MFA in Studio Arts, concentration in Sculpture and Installation. 2015- 2017
University of Brighton. UK. BA Fine Art Sculpture. 2008 – 2011
Selected Exhibitions
2025
SNAG Safehouse 2. Peckham
Growing Season Part 2, Lewisham Arthouse
HACK 8558 Shaftesbury Avenue, Bow Arts
2024
Waterloo Kiln Commission, Swinton, Yorkshire.
Material Matters, Safehouse 1 & 2. Peckham.
Seedbomb, Newhaven Open Call. Newhaven, East Sussex.
Growing Season (Part 1) with Coven Collective. Lewisham.
Landslide, MASS Sculpture show, Thames Side Gallery, Woolwich.
Here be Giants, The Sun Inn, Saffron Walden.
GOGMAGOG, Cambridge Artworks. Solo
2023
Let Them Eat Fake, BWG Gallery, Soho.
2022
Memory Into Landscape, Elysium Gallery, Swansea.
Rooted, Sussex Prairie Gardens.
Outrageous Cretaceous, Sevenoaks Kaleidoscope Gallery. Solo
Limen, No Format Gallery, Deptford. Solo
2021
The Plymouth Contemporary, Karst Gallery & Levinsky Gallery, Plymouth.
Soft Snacks, Block Gallery, Raleigh and Meredith College. NC USA. International collaboration
Luck & Limen, Sevenoaks Kaleidoscope Gallery, Kent. Solo
Force, Southern Vermont Arts Center, Vermont USA.
2020
TAPS Now, Kosar Contemporary, Bristol UK.
2019
Thicket, Tunnel Gallery, Tonbridge School, Kent UK. Solo
Confluence, collaborative site-specific installation, St Mary’s Church Burham, Kent UK.
Residencies
Artist in Residence. Cambridge Artworks. June – July 2023
Artist in Residence. The Island, Bristol. January 2021
Artist in Residence. Tonbridge School, Kent. 2019-2020
Artist in Residence. Discover Roman Otford Project, Kent. 2019-2020
Artist in Residence. Jiwar, Barcelona, Spain. August 2018
Artist in Residence. Vermont Studio Center, VT. May 2018
Winter Artist in Residence. Salem Art Works, NY September 2014- March 2015
Visiting Artist. Minoterie 21, Brittany, France. August 2013
Intern Artist. Salem Art Works, NY May-August 2013
Intern Artist. Franconia Sculpture Park, MN August-November 2011.
Public Artworks
Waterloo Kiln Commission, Swinton, Yorkshire. Commissioned by Rotherham Museums Arts and Heritage 2024
‘Triassic Slices’ Curve Theatre, Leicester. Commissioned by Vehicle Arts 2022
‘Xenia I & II’ Tonbridge School, commissioned 2020
‘Feast’ Salem Art Works Sculpture Park, New York. Installed 2015. Permanent
‘Summer Something’ Salem Art Works Sculpture Park, New York. Installed 2014. Permanent
Awards
Helen A Thrush Scholarship 2016-2017
Howard Scholarship 2016-2017
Adelaide Holderness Graduate Fellow, 2015-2016