My artistic practice encompasses photography, video, installation and performance. I use photographs of objects and people to question issues of artificiality and idealisation.
My artistic practice encompasses photography, video, installation and performance. I use photographs of objects and people to question issues of artificiality and idealisation.
Self-Portraits
Primarily this artwork is self-portraiture, but not in the traditional sense. In the work I create photographic substitutes. I examine the act of looking and being looked at, frequently using my own experience of becoming an object of sight to draw attention to the power relations of exhibitionism and voyeurism. By presenting myself as an object it could be argued that I reproduce stereotypical images of the female body, but I confound the hierarchy of object and subject.
Still Lifes
Still life images are portraits of a type, evoking unseen subjects who possess and consume the objects on display. Drawing on both definitions of the term ‘consume’ I use food still life photography to represent different characters and positions in relation to advanced capitalist society. What I eat and how I eat is a metonym of my wider consumer habits. Food is also employed as a metaphor for the subjection of my body under capitalist systems. The commodities I consume are integrated in my identity and my identity is shaped to a marketing demographic. I am what I consume. I am an advertisement for the commodities I consume.
Qualifications and training
2017 - PhD by Project, Fine Art, Royal College of Art, London
2008 - MA Photography, Royal College of Art, London
2001 - BA (Hons) Fine Art Print-making, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
Solo exhibitions
2018 - Consumed: Stilled Lives, Ffotogallery, Cardiff
2017 - Consumed: Stilled Lives, Ruskin Gallery, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge
2016 - Consumed: Stilled Lives and the Pathologies of Capitalism, Dyson Gallery, Royal College of Art, London
2015 - Consumer, Various commercial advertising spaces, Cardiff
2013 - Visual Pleasure, Hippolyte Photography Gallery, Helsinki, Finland
2012 - Short Lived Pleasure, Bloc Projects, Sheffield
2012 - Visual Pleasure, Vilniaus Fotografijos Galerija, Lithuania
2011 - Visual Pleasure, Ffotogallery, Penarth, Cardiff
2010 - Interloper, Oriel Davies, Newtown, Powys
2010 - The Substitute, Newhall College, Cambridge University, Cambridge
2008 - Interloper, South Square Gallery, Bradford
2006 - The Other Woman, The Lighthouse Gallery, Wolverhampton
2003 - Because I'm worth it, Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery, Blackburn
2002 - Because I'm worth it, Open Artist's Studios, Manchester
2002 - Contact Scheme, Community Venues, Lancaster
Group exhibitions
2018 - vis-à-vis, Contemporary Welsh artists respond to images of women from the University of South Wales Museum Collection, Oriel y Bont Gallery, Pontypridd.
2017 - Self / Selfies, Ballarat International Foto Biennale, Australia.
2017 - “Le Féminin” Circulation(s), Voies Off, Arles, France.
2017 - From Selfies to Self-expression, Saatchi Gallery, London.
2014 - All Coherence Gone? BayArts, Cardiff
2014 - Basically. Forever. Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
2014 - Recollection, Ruimte Morguen, Antwerp, Belgium
2013 - Diamond Geezar, Garage, Antwerp, Belguim
2013 - Wild Oats, Milkwood Gallery, Cardiff
2013 - Trajector, Bloom Hotel, Brussels, Belguim
2013 - Wastelands, Greenlease Gallery, Kansas City, USA
2012 - 100 Curators 100 Days, Selected by Matthias Harder, Chief curator, Helmut Newton Foundation, Saatchi Online
2012 - All Your Women Things, Paper, Manchester
2012 - Create, Observe, Perform, Alkovi Gallery, Helsinki, Finland
2012 - Look Attractive, UMKC Gallery of Art, Kansas City
2011 - Worldwide @ Young Portfolio , Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts, Kiyosato, Japan
2011 - Objects of Desire, Freud Museum, London
2011 - Portmanteau, Halle 14, Spinnerei (curated by G39), Leipzig
2011 - Time After 2011, Gallery Kortil, Rijeka, Croatia
2011 - Virtually Real, The Audrey and Stanley Burton Gallery, Leeds
2010 - Auxesis, Tactile Bosch, Cardiff
2010 - New Media, Sex, and Culture in the 21st Century, Museum of New Art, Detroit
2010 - Nude, Loudoun Gallery, Lexington, Kentucky, USA
2010 - Virtually Real, Blyth Gallery, Imperial College, South Kensington
2009 - Abandon Normal Devices Festival, FACT Centre , Liverpool
2009 - Art V Film, University of Wisconsin, Madison
2009 - Contemporary Art Projects, London Art Fair, London
2009 - Cream International Festival for Arts and Media, Tokyo University of the Arts, Bashamichi Campus, Yokohama, Japan
2009 - Cross Fire, Oriel Canfas, Cardiff
2009 - Evolution Media Arts Festival, Burton Art Gallery and Hyde Park Picture House, Leeds
2009 - Failure / Success, Tactile BOSCH studios, Cardiff
2009 - Sensitive Material, NEU Gallery, London
2009 - The Human Canvas, Centre for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, Colorado
2009 - Transfixed Motion/Transitory Still, SIAD Gallery, Sheffield Hallam University
2009 - Zero de Conduite, Elevator Gallery, London
2008 - Ending Feminist Futures, University of Aberdeen, Scotland
2008 - Videophile, Phoenix Art gallery, Brighton
2007 - House, Elastic Residence Gallery, London
2007 - I'll Be Your Mirror, Primo Alonso Gallery, London
2007 - Success / Failure, Photomonth Festival, Krakow, Poland
2006 - I'll Be Your Mirror, Liverpool Biennial Independants, Liverpool
2005 - Makeshift, Midlands Art Centre, Birmingham
2005 - We Didn't Mean to be Bad Kids, TV Made Us do it, Strathclyde University, Glasgow
2005 - We Didn't Mean to be Bad Kids, TV Made Us do it, University of Hertford Galleries, Hertford
2005 - Young Portfolio Acquisitions, Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts, Japan
2004 - We didn't mean to be bad kids, TV made us do it, Warrington Art Gallery, Warrington
2003 - The Dog and Partridge, Castlefield Art Gallery, Manchester
2002 - Art Take Away, Cornerhouse Art Centre, Manchester
2002 - Family, (8 artists), De Montford Hall, Leicester City Art Gallery, Leicester
2001 - Fresh Art Fair, Business Design Centre, London
2001 - The Mancunian Candidate, Degree show, Holden Gallery, Manchester Metropolitan University Curated projects
2006 - Another Product @ British Art Show, Cornerhouse Art Centre, Manchester
2006 - Making Love to my Ego, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester
2004 - Peepshow, Warsaw Space, Manchester
2004 - Processor, Warsaw Project Space, Manchester
2003 - Show Home, Urban Splash, Manchester
Live/Performance
2010 - Cut to the Measure of Desire (Homo Bulla), G39 Gallery, Cardiff
2010 - Cut to the Measure of Desire (Homo Bulla), Shop Window, Castle Arcade, Cardiff
2010 - Cut to the Measure of Desire (vogelen), The Park Conservative Club, Cardiff
Residencies
2014 - Studio Residency, Salzamt Atelier, Linz, Austria
2011 - Studio Residency, Cite Des Arts Internationale, Paris
2008 - Studio Residency, Cite Des Arts Internationale, Paris
Competitions, prizes and awards
2017 - Winner, Saatchi Gallery Selfie Competition
2015 - Final Selection, Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts Young Portfolio Acquisitions
2015 - Shortlisted, Red Mansion Art Prize, Royal College of Art
2010 - Man Group Photo Prize, Royal College of Art, London
2011 - Shortlisted, Constance Fairness Foundation Award, Royal College of Art
2010 - Finalist, My World: Visions of 21st Century Feminism, European Women’s Lobby, Brussels
2009 - The Human Canvas Juror's Selection, The Centre for Fine Art Photography, Fort collins, Colorado
2008 - Art Source / Land Securities Award, MA Show, London