The more considered, philosophical thought that underpins my other practice, which can be very time-consuming, is as exciting as it is important to me. In the past my work has documented the passing of time using discarded, personal, everyday materials – for example as a means to visually represent the processing of grief.
The inherent magic in materials intrigues me: memory, the way stories can be told through them, the alchemy in transformation or display and what this can infer about our feelings and experiences as people. The potential for different responses and readings of the work is wonderful and has been a catalyst for very interesting and important conversations with others.
Pomegranates, 2017, after pouring smelted aluminium inside. These were exhibited as sculptures as were the burnt husks of the fruit. None of the metal was wasted as its importance (and magic) lay in its transformation and its entirety.
The pomegranate was popular in the Middle Ages for its pagan and christian symbolism. Some scholars suggest it was the fruit of the tree of life in the Garden of Eden. In the myth of Persephone it is the symbol of rebirth and the reawakening of nature. Persephone, the daughter of Demeter and Zeus, was kidnapped by Hades through eating the seeds of a pomegranate. For 6 months of the year she presided over the underworld as Hades’ wife. Her mother, Demeter (god of the harvest) persuaded Zeus and Hades to allow Persephone to return to the world for 6 months of the year: the period of spring and summer which is why most legends associate the fruit with fertility.
The tonic cans were collected over a period of 4 years following my mother’s death. As objects in themselves they were quite unremarkable, so I explored how I might transform them into something else whilst maintaining the inherent ‘magic’ of their original material. It was an exciting – and unnerving – process …
See the magic happen in this short video … https://www.youtube.com/shorts/z4LdAQMfu9c