Residencies - Projects - Installations
Along with consistently developing my individual art practice, I have and continue to engage in a diverse range of creative roles including Art Residencies, Gallery Management and Project Lead.
A selection can be seen below along with a couple of examples of commissioned installations.
Clean and Create
Project Facilitator and Instigator Ish Lennox organised a ‘Clean and Create’ event in Saltcoats, North Ayrshire. The event invited the public to participate in collecting rubbish from the beach and I transformed the material into a temporary installation. The project was completed in collaboration with the North Ayrshire Council and the Marine Conservation Society.
Bivol Trust Youth Project
For a period of one year, I worked as Project Lead working with a group of young people with learning disabilities in developing their creative skills. Using an Anime and Manga theme, the group engaged in drawing, painting and sculptural work. The project culminated in a gallery exhibition of their work.
Creative Contemplative Retreat
I had the pleasure of co-leading a creative contemplative retreat with Margot Dunnachie on the island of Cumbrae, Scotland. Participants created pieces in response to the surrounding landscape and inspirational texts. Works included sculpture incorporating natural materials, the written word, painting and a collective piece with land art and live art aspects.
Encounters – Installation
The installation consists of hundreds of painted sticks placed side by side weaving their way through the landscape. Each has its unique pattern and its positioning on the ground influenced by the one placed before it.
The piece is symbolic of the passing days of a life and the influence that particular encounters with people and circumstances can have. These influences manifest themselves differently on different days, having become absorbed into who we are. Even a single word (that may have been spoken many times before) can in a specific moment, impact such that one’s thinking and behaviour from then on is changed, coloured in a new way.
Encounters also carries with it an expression of gratitude for those who have positively impacted my life and also of a desire to live life in the fullness of each new day with its own unrepeatable uniqueness.
Chosen Stones – Installation
Chosen Stones was my first major work as Artist in Residence at the Bradfield Club in Peckham, London. The club was celebrating its centenary year and I was asked to create a piece to mark the event. I wanted to create an artwork that would enable me to make direct connection with the club – its origins, history and current contributors – and in some way link them all into the present. In addition, I wanted to express my belief that the club is a special place and has a unique contribution to make to the vibrant hope for the community of Peckham.
Everyone involved in the club, be that as a youth club member, parent, employee or Trustee- past or present, was invited to contribute a stone for the artwork as a symbol of their participation and connection to it. It was a real joy for me to receive each individually selected stone, often handed over with a tale of its history and significance to that person. The thoughtfulness and generosity of the participants left a deep impression.
The installation consisted of the placing of the stones on the ground and attaching ‘invisible’ strands, rising up above head-height. The stones at the base were ones from the Bradfield College where the club has its foundation and ongoing essential support. These ‘foundation stones’ link with other stones in the strands, an invisible connectedness, hinting at the unseen yet precious orchestration of individuals in an extending community.
Artist in Residence, Peckham, London
For a period of over 4 years I worked at the Bradfield Club in Peckham as Artist in Residence. The residency enabled me to work alongside local youth in creating a whole range of work including painting, print, sculpture and working towards an exhibition and fashion show.
Alongside work with the youth, I developed my own practice and created works including the installation Chosen Stones, print and collage works such as Moss Drip and Green Giant.
Gallery and Theatre
For seven years as Gallery Manager at the Gordon Reece Gallery, Mayfair I oversaw the day to day running of the gallery with fine antiques and rare artefacts from around the world, assisting in the purchase of art work and exhibition curation.
Working with Diakonos Physical Theatre in the capacity of Visual Arts Educator and Arts Administrator the role incorporated teaching students, theatre performance, administration, fundraising and PR.
Artist in Residence, Trinidad, Bolivia
For one year I had the privilege of working in the Beni region of Bolivia, primarily within a small school for the deaf. I devised an art curriculum for the students, ages ranging from 4-18.
Laterly, the whole school worked towards the creation of an ambitious installation of the students work and I organised the hosting of the work by a local gallery. The school and local community were unaware of there ever being an exhibition of work of deaf individuals in the region and the project was considered ground-breaking.