I've moved home 6 times in the last 4 years. The spaces I live in have a huge influence over the work I produce. I'm very interested in mapping and recording my own existence. My art-work and my life cannot be separated - one exists for the other and vice versa. I love making art in my home-space. I've upset a lot of my previous housemates. As a child I imagined my home as an adult. I decided then that I wouldn't conform to such rigid divisions of space for instance: This is the living room for watching TV, this is the bedroom for sleeping, this is the dining room for eating. My home would encourage creativity, wildness and community. I'm now an adult and I can barely afford a room in a flat share.
This is a photograph of a temporary sculpture I made using found materials taken in the living room of my flat at the time - the room is as important to me as the sculpture; my work is always a record of my existence. The places I live, the way I feel, the things I find whilst walking.
Depression distorts my view of reality and of other people. When I’m struggling with the illusions of depression – existence plays out as though it were inside a mirror or framed within the screen of a television. I exist outside of it, separated by a screen of hard, cold glass which flattens and dulls the wet softness and thumping heartbeat of life.
I see perfect representations of life, at times I even produce my own. This photograph represents the other side of me, the other part of us all, which is under-represented.
My back garden 2019
At the time this photograph was taken I was struggling with a severe sense of isolation. I struggle with my mental health, I feel embarrassed – I feel, despite current cultural awareness of mental health, that I am somehow not valid. Loneliness is what I experience and I’m embarrassed to tell the people I love how far away they seem. One night I dyed my hair purple, I took out the kitchen scissors and started cutting my hair. I decided to style it into a mullet. Dawn broke and I walked to university to try and get in but it was still too early and the gates were locked. I walked back home and fell asleep – the next day, or around that time I took this photograph. Creating art, has been and always will be the constant of my life. When I am happy I make art, when I am sad I make art, when I am lost, I hold on to art.
On my street 2019
Making my sculptures in my bedroom. 2021
Doing experiments in the communal living room of my shared flat 2021
Stills from an unpublished film - a lilac day
I started experimenting with film-making around 2020 - I wanted to make a film which cast the boots as the main subject. These are some stills taken in my ex-roommates wardrobe after he left following the first wave of Covid.
Editing the film-stills on PowerPoint
Collected objects arranged on the driveway 2021
I moved in with my sister for a few months during 2021 and again at the beginning of 2022. My sister has just brought her first home on a newly built housing estate. The environment bemused me. Everything was extremely ordered and homogenous. At times I felt as though I were walking around a film-set made of glossy paper -
The view from my bedroom window 2022
Collection in Flat 7 kitchen. 2017
Collection in Flat 7 hallway. 2017
Image from my series 'From the bedroom window' 2019