My work examines a variety of systems and structures that exist in my everyday. For example, colour models, media and light. Using historical moments for reference helps trace my deployment of gesture.
hand over face, hand on mouth, anonymous body leaping falling pushed
I also use the deluge and juxtaposition of images in everyday ephemera such as free newspapers. I am especially drawn to uncanny moments where stories and images from different sources collide and create humour.
The gestures reflect my interest in certain qualities of speech. For example, the absurdity of speech is a recurring theme in my work. At the point where I begin to use my voice, it falls away, silences and traces its steps, encircling the site of production.
For example, my work //|\\ directly references multiple and familiar, yet transient architectural structures for facilitating social gatherings or ceremonies: the pyre, maypole, bonfire, tent. These structures animate a space for social discourse and act as sites for constructing narrative. Art tends to have a transient presence in relation to site, whereas architecture claims its site. This is something I am currently exploring further in my work.
Palace of Accents is an ongoing collection of drawings that are a lateral spreading of thought. The work consists of sheets of paper that can be composed as one large wall piece or as grouped components spread around a space. It can be read as a narrative unfolding over time that is not linear, allowing for stretching and leaping in the manner of free association.
Whippet Fur is formed of five individual paintings that refer to representations of moments that I did not witness. I arranged them in response to the sweeping gestural mark in the first painting, Pushed Thread. The arrangement itself becomes an image, transforming the individual works into building blocks of a higher-level schema, drawing attention to rhetorical devices used in the production and display of art works.
These approaches to reconfiguration and dislocation of images attempt to re-examine how we perceive works of art as propositions, not always fully resolved; and the mechanisms for generating images beyond the periphery of the work. Negotiating this invisible, internal, yet very real space is a strong imperative in my practice.
Education
2012-14 MA Painting, Royal College of Art, London
2002-5 BA (Honours) Fine Art, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield
2001-2 BTEC Foundation Art and Design, Manchester Metropolitan University
Solo Exhibition
2015 Throwing Shapes, 84 Hatton Garden, London
Selected Group Exhibitions
2016 Parallel Lines: Mums and Daughters, Cell Studios, London
2016 Working from Home, AMP Gallery, Peckham, part of Art Licks weekend, London
2016 Duplicit, Snehta, Athens, Greece
2015 Now in Reverse: An Amnesiac’s Stories, with Yvonne Feng, Hundred Years Gallery
2015 Polyphonie X, 336 Green Lanes, London
2015 RCA Secret, Dyson Gallery, Royal College of Art, London
2014 Not the Crown Jewels, PCS Union Battersea, London
2014 Show RCA, Royal College of Art, London
2014 Arddangosfa Neuroanatomy | Rebecca Hardy-Griffith, Bocs Coop, Caernarfon, Wales
2014 RCA Secret, Dyson Gallery, Royal College of Art, London
2014 You Know, I... Instinct with thinking, with Yvonne Feng, Hockney Gallery, London
2013 Diseased Brethren, part of Art Licks Weekend, Asylum, London
2013 PNTNG NOV, Henry Moore Gallery, Royal College of Art, London
2013 WiP (work in progress), Henry Moore Gallery, Royal College of Art, London
2012 Animal House, Cephalopod, London
2011 Correos, Galeria Progresso, curated by Pablo Ferretti, Porto Alegre, Brazil
Prizes / Open submissions
2015 Shoosmiths Art Prize (shortlisted), MK Arts for Health, Milton Keynes Hospital
2015 Longlisted for East London Painting Prize, Bow Arts Trust, London
2014 Wells Art Contemporary,Somerset: Anita Taylor, Donald Smith, Richard Wentworth OBE
2014 Saatchi New Sensations, Saatchi Online:Ceri Hand,Tom Hunter,Jessica Lack,Kirsty Ogg
2011 Salon Art Prize, Matt Roberts Arts, London: Patricia Bickers, Pippa Hale, Robert Leckie
2009 Absorb Arts Show, London
Employment
2016- Painting Tutor, Queensgate Studios, London
2011- Co-founder and Project Leader, Artists Explore, Greater London
2007- Education Assistant, The National Gallery, London
2008-16 Freelance Artist, Emergency Exit Arts, London
2011 Artist, Epic Arts, Cambodia
2007-9 Freelance Artist, Thames Festival and Lumina Arts, London
2005-6 Workshop Facilitator, The Kids Company, London
2002-4 Artist and Project Coordinator, Abbeydale Industrial Museum, Sheffield
Awards / Scholarships
2012-14 Lucy Halford Painting Bursary, Royal College of Art, London
2005 Hallam Award, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield
2002 Drawing Award, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
Publications
2014 Artupdate.com, Royal College fo Art Degree Show, 9th June
2014 Martian Sunsets are Blue: Royal College of Art Painting Catalogue, Kenilworth:
Emmerson Press, June 2013
Residency / Exchange
2016 Zarakes, Evia, Greece
2013 Artist exchange, F+F Schule für Kunst und Design, Zürich, Switzerland
Talks / Performance
2016 Without Roof or Rule, Working from Home, AMP, Art Licks, London
2015 Now in Reverse: An Amnesiac’s Stories, with Yvonne Feng, Hundred Years Gallery
2014 Performance for 'Dwelling' | Guler Ates with Marcelle Joseph Projects, London
2014 Artist Talk, Kingston University BA and MA programme, Kingston
2014 Visiting Tutor and Artist talk, University of East London, BA and MA programmes
2014 Guest Artist, Royal Mews, Royal Collection, London
2014 Artist talk, Dyson Lecture Theatre, Royal College of Art, London
2010 Guest Artist, Windsor Castle, Royal Collection, Windsor
