Making sculptures to sell (rather than as commissions) is a relatively new departure for me. Sculptures from the Spirality series continue to sell and the sculpture Dream Boat - created for a group show at Gateshead Visitor Centre - is in private ownership.
IMAGINATION
Carturesti, Bucharest, Romania, 2011
An interactive installation, exhibition and presentation developed through collaboration with Romanian artist Vanda Maria Sturdza as part of Artists in Creative Education (a year-long European Exchange programme funded in the UK through Creativity Culture and Education CCE).
We worked with children from three schools (2 Romanian, one in the UK) to explore what we would like ’creativity in school’ to mean. The process resulted in images and words drawn onto multiple plastic aprons - like the empty skins for ideas - participants subsequently added wires to give 'form' to their findings.
OASIS
Newcastle Building Society, Newcastle, 2008
Oasis is a suspended installation created specifically for the atrium
of the Society’s new building: Cobalt. The ideas and form for the
work were generated through discussions and making sessions with staff
whilst in residence over a three month period.
On each floor of the building are vending pods for soft drinks. As the
company have a strong recycling ethos it was decided to create the installation
entirely from over 350 plastic bottles sourced and recycled on site.
The building overlooks lakes where birds land and flock; through watching this process the idea was born to juxtapose artificial and natural. The bottles were cut to create bird-like forms, as if a strange translucent flock were frozen in mid ascent.
PRESENCE
St. Andrew's Cathedral, Inverness, 2008
Presence was the culmination of a three month residency on the theme of 'arts and spirituality' organised by 'the other side of air'.
Created from printed origami modules (designed by school children and community groups), the installation contained over 1,300 'inner messages' written by members of Inverness Riverside Churches congregations, their friends and families and the wider community.
Thoughtful interaction with the installation was encouraged: members of the public were able to open the origami flaps and read the messages.
See more at the other side of air/arts & spirituality »
DREAM BOAT
Gateshead Visitor Centre, 2005
Most of my work is based around an exploration of space. For years I have been creating installations with defined interiors and exteriors but without doors or walls.
Many of these pieces were ‘vessel shaped’ but lacking the capacity to cup or hold anything aside from interior space.
Dream Boat is such a vessel, made from sheet PVC plastic, fishing-line and fishing weights, the form is made visible by dripping a pva/ink based mixture down the lines. I am interested in how drips - when allowed to accumulate - slowly give form (substance) to a line.
TRAVERSER
The Bridge, Tynemouth Metro Station, 2005.
Traversing the space, surfaces of ‘heat-mirror’ - a reflective
and flexible sheet PVC - were angled to catch light entering from south-facing
windows. Vibrations from the movement of trains and passengers set pools
of light in motion.
Using the linear/sequential quality of walkways and windows, the installation grew in stages. Lines which started as drips of a PVA/ink mix were - once dry - peeled up taking the reflective surface of the heat-mirror with them. Thus within these surfaces a negative transparent space recorded the progress of each dripped line
PLASTICITY
The Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 2003
This installation was commissioned as part of Liverpool's Capital of Culture bid and was part of a festival aimed at raising environmental awareness. Plasticity was created from hundreds of plastic bottles collected by school children.
The form was inspired by algal blooms, a phenomenon caused by algae feeding on pollution in water; the blooms - whilst beautiful looking - can grow so large that they eventually starve other life forms of oxygen.
SPIRALITY
VARC residency; Tarset, Northumberland,
2001 - 2002
Solo show, Queen's Hall, Hexham, 2002
This residency was based in very high open moorland. The Spirality series was the result of collecting local grasses and studying algae growing in the bog pools.
The grasses were used in combination with PVC to create sculptural forms that suggest or recall cell structure, single celled protozoa, and spiral forms found in nature.
See more at Visual Arts in Rural Communities »
INKÖRPERATE
Eislebener Str. Bochum, Germany,
2001
Group show
The dividing of surface area and space using: cuts, tears and stitches became the focus of a series of artworks made whilst living in Bochum, Germany.
All the materials used had a visible weave that appears transparent in certain lights, thus creating ‘space-grids’. The aim was to explore the dividing line between presence and absence.
EAVES DROP
Blackthorpe Barn, Suffolk, 1996
This 100 foot long, 16th Century threshing barn has a steep roof of thatch; to reflect both this and the original use of the barn the installation was created in thatching straw.
The roof proportions were used in two/thirds scale to create this 20 metre long inversion of the roof interior.
The installation was commissioned by Blackthorpe Barn and formed part of the 1996 Bury St Edmunds Festival.
BIG FAST
Tûzoltó
Gallery, Budapest, Hungary, 1993
Solo show sponsored by British Council in Budapest
The gallery is situated in a disused factory; the installations were each created for specific areas within the gallery. Each installation utilised some form of packaging material, though devoid of content, so that the focus was on sensual surfaces.
The main hall has a partially glazed roof; the diffused natural light
permeating this space was used to expose the machine-repetitive indentation
on rolls of aluminium foil.
GIVE ME MORE!
Dorottya Gallery, Budapest, Hungary, 1992
Solo show sponsored by the Ministry of Culture & Public Education,
Hungary
The Gallery has a shop-window frontage and is located in Budapest's busiest shopping street. In 1992, bill-board hoardings were starting to appear in the city, so cut up bill-board paper was used to create the installation.
The aim was to create something enticing and wonderful that wasn't about buying, and where the joy was purely in beholding.
A SENSE OF PLACE
Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, 1986
Solo show
For this show three installations were made with definite interiors and exteriors but no walls, doors or windows. Spectators were encouraged to walk inside and touch them, thus providing a performance element for other onlookers.
In common with other pieces, this uses cheap and familiar, user-friendly, materials; this one being made from 3000 paper tissues.