My work focuses on systems of authority as a way to investigate sociological ideas which influence our experiences and beliefs. Through challenging cultural expectations, I aim to unearth ideas which may otherwise be suppressed as a result of social etiquette and conventions.
Through a range of media, the work engages with socially constructed binaries such as masculine and feminine; comfort and unease; formality and humour. I am interested in the different ways and means we are exposed to a political or social subject and how this impacts on interpretation and forms cultural expectations. Despite employing widely recognisable subject matter, the work seeks to subvert the formal, masculine associations related to structures of social control and hierarchy and attempts to investigate their influence upon culture.
Investigating Noam Chomsky’s studies of the relationship between war, politics and the media, as well as the employment of such topics within contemporary art, my practice aims to unbalance the status quo. By directing thought towards socially ascribed tensions within unsettling areas of society, I attempt to re-assess presuppositions and encourage thought regarding how context shapes interpretation.
Through a study of femininity and art history, I consider what Griselda Pollock describes as the ‘social relations which form the conditions of the production and consumptions of objects.’ More specifically, through my approach to materials, I focus on associations to textile work as ‘the instrument of femininity’, used both to repress and liberate women throughout history. This engagement with the histories and associations linked to traditional materials and processes such as needlecraft, aims to undermine the formality of the political nature of the subjects I represent, as well as provoke questions relating to the function of the artwork and the role of the artist.
I employ a variety of practical methods in order to explore the impact artwork can have upon its surroundings. Inspired by Claes Oldenburg’s use of scale and installation, I engage with ideas of the absurd in order to explore the relationship between artwork, context and interpretation. My primary interest is for the artwork to become a catalyst for alternative approaches to thinking.
1 Pollock, G (1988), Vision and Difference: Femininity and Histories of Art, Routledge, London. 3.
2 Parker, R. (1984). The Subversive Stitch, Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine. London: The Women's Press. 84.
Through a range of media, the work engages with socially constructed binaries such as masculine and feminine; comfort and unease; formality and humour. I am interested in the different ways and means we are exposed to a political or social subject and how this impacts on interpretation and forms cultural expectations. Despite employing widely recognisable subject matter, the work seeks to subvert the formal, masculine associations related to structures of social control and hierarchy and attempts to investigate their influence upon culture.
Investigating Noam Chomsky’s studies of the relationship between war, politics and the media, as well as the employment of such topics within contemporary art, my practice aims to unbalance the status quo. By directing thought towards socially ascribed tensions within unsettling areas of society, I attempt to re-assess presuppositions and encourage thought regarding how context shapes interpretation.
Through a study of femininity and art history, I consider what Griselda Pollock describes as the ‘social relations which form the conditions of the production and consumptions of objects.’ More specifically, through my approach to materials, I focus on associations to textile work as ‘the instrument of femininity’, used both to repress and liberate women throughout history. This engagement with the histories and associations linked to traditional materials and processes such as needlecraft, aims to undermine the formality of the political nature of the subjects I represent, as well as provoke questions relating to the function of the artwork and the role of the artist.
I employ a variety of practical methods in order to explore the impact artwork can have upon its surroundings. Inspired by Claes Oldenburg’s use of scale and installation, I engage with ideas of the absurd in order to explore the relationship between artwork, context and interpretation. My primary interest is for the artwork to become a catalyst for alternative approaches to thinking.
1 Pollock, G (1988), Vision and Difference: Femininity and Histories of Art, Routledge, London. 3.
2 Parker, R. (1984). The Subversive Stitch, Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine. London: The Women's Press. 84.