Artist in Residence Exhibition University for the Creative Arts Farnham September 2023
I spent an enjoyable and fruitful year as Artist in Residence in the Ceramics Department - learning, doing, teaching and meeting some wonderful people. My work went seemingly in multiple directions but in the end it all came together and culminated in my exhibition entitled 'Thought Boxes'.
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'My thoughts this year have turned to the huge pressure, especially on the young, to have fully formed, broadcastable opinions on everything. Our personalised receipt of information means we interact in increasingly compartmentalised mini communities where confirmation bias festers. Open mindedness, flexibility and evidence-based discussion of nuanced and complex social and political issues gets tougher, but it is what we need to combat false and entrenched information.
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Thought Boxes continue developing........
Radiant Objects September 2023
What a privilege to have be asked to take part in the Radiant Objects Exhibition for Coastal Currents at Electro Gallery in Hastings. My piece Déjà Vu All Over Again was brilliantly curated along with many other radiant artworks by Sharon Haward and Hannah Birkett.
Deja Vu All Over Again
False history repeats itself.
Humans from all eras have been attracted by the power of conspiracy theories to soothe and make sense of their fear, uncertainty and lack of control in the face of crisis.
Over time the fiction becomes fact and radiates a false narrative that twists and taints the future.
Unseen Workers
Science Talks and Art Exhibition
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Oxford University Biology and British Ecological Society
'Attack!' - my interpretation of the life cycle of bacteriophages
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Particular bacteriophages have evolved to kill only a specific set of bacteria so they could be used to cure certain infections without damaging the communities of beneficial bacteria within our bodies.
So, I began thinking of bacteriophages as armies waging wars. On finding bacteria targets they attach using their landing pads and inject weapons of DNA inside. There they replicate themselves. Next, they make toxic chemical weapons that rupture the host bacteria from the inside out releasing their offspring to go forth and repeat the process. Ruthless!
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'Hard Graft'
This piece represents Shewanella bacteria going to work in the laboratory converting graphene oxide into graphene - a single layer of carbon atoms, tightly bound in a hexagonal honeycomb lattice. Despite being only one atom thick, in terms of stretchability, graphene is the strongest material ever tested! There are endless possibilities for its use.
