Embracing interdisciplinarity, using found objects and materials like fired ceramics, wood, and textiles, I make provocative unique artefacts investigating processes and concepts through making: I ask what we make, how we make it, and why that matters. I use making as a way of critically questioning and adding meaning to society and practice; examining ideas like pace, repetition, and playfulness. Focusing on concepts and processes means I embrace new materials and techniques, constantly pushing myself in order to fully explore areas of making which are “being the scenes”. Curating exhibitions (eg, The Department of Repair (2015)), giving workshops and talks, and writing make my ideas public.
Embracing interdisciplinarity, using found objects and materials like fired ceramics, wood, and textiles, I make provocative unique artefacts investigating processes and concepts through making: I ask what we make, how we make it, and why that matters. I use making as a way of critically questioning and adding meaning to society and practice; examining ideas like pace, repetition, and playfulness. Focusing on concepts and processes means I embrace new materials and techniques, constantly pushing myself in order to fully explore areas of making which are “being the scenes”. Curating exhibitions (eg, The Department of Repair (2015)), giving workshops and talks, and writing make my ideas public.
Since 2013 I’ve focused on repair as a concept, within multiple disciplines, and as independent practice, including completing a practice-based AHRC funded PhD (Repair-Making: Craft, Narratives, Activism). As 2018/19 Victoria and Albert Museum Artist in Residence, I examined the relationship of repair to conservation through artefacts, a publication and exhibition (Repair-Making and The Museum, V&A, September 2019). MEND MORE Jumper (2015) is on loan to the Fashioned from Nature exhibition (V&A, 2018-21). Blue Jumper (2012 ongoing) has recently been acquired by the museum. A solo exhibition of my textile works at the National Centre for Craft and Design (2019) was curated by Lesley Farrell.
Commissions include A Jumper to Lend (2014) (Textile Toolbox touring exhibition), Sides to Middle (Nature of Mending, 2016, Bridport Arts Centre). The Camberwell ILEA Collection acquired Lidded Vessel in 2018. I am working on another commission for them, and Works for London Craft Week 2020.
My writing is published in Ephemera Journal (2019), A Narrative of Progress: The Camberwell ILEA Collection (2018) and The Department of Repair (2015) catalogues.
Practice
I investigate processes and concepts through making, asking what we make, how we make it, and why that matters. I embrace interdisciplinarity, to propose forgotten or ignored areas of making afresh, and constantly push boundaries to explore areas of making which are “behind the scenes”.
I use found and discarded domestic objects and materials like fired ceramics, wood and textiles, and learn skills and techniques as I need them, drawing from multiple making and conservation disciplines, to make provocative unique artefacts. My work has been described as exploring ‘themes of carnival, folk art and tribal display with a touch of Blackpool thrown in’. Making, for me, is a way of critically questioning and adding meaning to society and practice; examining ideas like pace, repetition, and playfulness. My artefacts become, through layers of making, thinking and acting, my agency made material.
My practice always includes concurrent enquiries, evolving over several years: I need time to reflect and rest as well as to make, often revisiting works and ideas to work on them further, devoting the right energy at the right time.
Since 2013 I’ve focused on repair as part of multiple disciplines and as independent craft practice, including completing a practice-based AHRC funded PhD (Repair-Making: Craft, Narratives, Activism). I have been re-storying this familiar yet forgotten craft, positing repair as once being household practice, then outmoded chore, and now in a third wave, as a political and environmental choice, increasingly seen as innovative and exciting creative mode. As 2018/19 Victoria and Albert Museum Artist in Residence, I examined the relationship of repair to conservation through making artefacts, a publication and exhibition (Repair-Making and The Museum, V&A, September 2019).
Curating exhibitions (eg, Material Times (2013), The Department of Repair (2015)), giving workshops and talks, and writing, make my ideas public as does exhibiting in places like The Bluecoat (Liverpool), Bridport Arts Centre (Dorset), the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) (London), and The Natural History Museum (Copenhagen).
My MEND MORE Jumper (2015) is on loan to Fashioned from Nature exhibition (V&A, 2018-21). Blue Jumper (2012 ongoing) has recently been acquired by the same museum. A solo exhibition of my textile works at the National Centre for Craft and Design (2019) was curated by Lesley Farrell. Ruup&Form gallery will take my work to Collect (February 2020), a significant annual show organised by the British Crafts Council.
Commissions include A Jumper to Lend (2014) (Textile Toolbox touring exhibition), Sides to Middle (Nature of Mending, 2016, Bridport Arts Centre). The Camberwell ILEA Collection acquired Lidded Vessel in 2018. I am working on another commission for them, and commissions for London Craft Week (April 2020). My writing is published in Ephemera Journal (2019), A Narrative of Progress: The Camberwell ILEA Collection (2018) and The Department of Repair (2015) catalogues.
Research
Since 2012 I have been researching repair as part of making practice. My practice-based, AHRC funded PhD, Repair-Making: Craft, Narratives, Activism (completed 2019), defines repair as part of an expanded making practice.
I am based at Camberwell College of Arts with the Material and Spatial Practices programme, and Chelsea College of Art (University of the Arts London) with the Centre for Circular Design.
My writing about repair, design activism, slowness and play is here
Facilitation and Teaching
I am Associate Lecturer on MA Designer Maker at Camberwell College of Arts, and Visiting Lecturer for BA3D Design (Camberwell), MA Textiles Design and BA Hons Textile Design (Chelsea College of Art). Previously I was visiting lecturer at Plymouth University where I designed and ran a module focussing on repair with BA Designer Maker.
I am an experienced workshop facilitator, running practical workshops exploring making, materials and repairing. For more information please see here
Exhibitions:
Collect 2020, with Ruup&Form Gallery, Somerset House, London, 27th February- 1st March 2020
Repair-Making and the Museum (solo exhibition), Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 14th - 22nd September 2019
Fashioned from Nature, Natural History Museum of Denmark, 13th April 2019 - 1st September 2019
Propositional Practice (solo exhibition), National Centre for Craft and Design, Sleaford, 23rd March 2019 - 19th May 2019
Fashioned from Nature, Victoria and Albert Museum, 21st April 2018 - 19th January 2019
Creekside Open 2017 (selected by Jordan Baseman), APT Gallery, Deptford, 4th - 28th May 2017
Making Circles, Circular Transitions conference, Chelsea College of Art, 23 - 24th November 2016
Experiencing Change / Changing Experience, ONCA Gallery, Brighton, 27th July - 5th August 2016
…by a thread…, Gawthorpe Hall, Burnley, 19th April – 19th June 2016
Mending Revealed, Bridport Arts Centre, 5th March – 16th April 2016
Re- reanimate, repair, meld and mend, Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool, 10th October – 14th November 2015
creo collective with Matter of Stuff, The Hospital Club, London Design Festival 2015
PLATE (Product Lifetimes And The Environment) Exhibition, Nottingham Trent University, 17-19th June 2015
The Department of Repair, Camberwell Space Gallery (co-curating and exhibiting), 12th January – 20th February 2015
Knit 1, Mend 1, Keep 1, Change 1, Walford Mill Crafts, Dorset, 17th January - 1st March 2015
Textile Toolbox, pop-up 13th November 2014, online at http://textiletoolbox.com/ : travelling exhibition ongoing
Springboard, The Cookhouse, Chelsea College of Art, London, November 2014
creo collective present creo creates at the Design Junction, London Design Festival (co-curated and exhibited) 16th-21st September 2014
Cambridge Sustainability Residency exhibition, Norfolk Street Gallery, Cambridge, April 2014
Process Practice Play, Triangle Space, Chelsea College of Art, London, March 2014
Fashioned, London Fashion Week at Crafts Central, London, January 2014
creo collective present Material Matters at Interiors 2104, Birmingham NEC, January 2014
creo collective present Material Times at the London Design Festival (co-curated and exhibited) 17th-22nd September 2013
Camberwell College of Arts MA Show 2013, 4-12th September 2013
The Geometrics : Volume 1 , Exhibition at Kingsgate Gallery, West Hampstead, 19th April – 5th May 2013
DEW Line, Sustainability in Art residency exhibition, 13th-19th May 2013, Cambridge
Getting Making exhibition, co-curating, The Bear at Camberwell, 23rd-25th May 2013
Library Show, We Weave loom, Camberwell College of Arts, London, January 2013
Mended, visibly mended items. The Library, Camberwell, July 2012
Wondersite, Helmet and 2 bracelets, Japanese Embassy, Green Park, London May- June 2012,
Work in Progress, Blue Necklace, Hotel Elephant Gallery, Elephant and Castle, London, April 2012
Library Show, Stitched Wood, Camberwell College of Arts, London, January 2012
Degree Show, Rugs, Chelsea College of Art and Design, June 2010
Residencies:
Victoria and Albert Museum, October 2018-July 2019
Cambridge Sustainability Residency 2014
Cambridge Sustainability Residency 2013
Tokyo Wondersite 2012
Selected Talks:
Repair-Making, Victoria and Albert Musuem, November 2019
Sides to Middle (artists talk) Bridport Arts Centre, March 2016
Unlearning / Remaking / Disobedience: Actively researching repair (Sculpture Lecture Series) Camberwell College of Arts, June 2016