I’ve been recently working a series of 3D projects; on paper sculptures and some fabric and chickenwire objects.
These works are about process, labour, truth and creating beauty from cheap materials.
For my paper pieces I saturate rolls of paper with layers of drawings, marks, form and colour using watercolour ink. Often I will include some “Easter eggs” such as landscapes, portraits and written messages in these layers.
The process is an exercise in patience, dexterity and duration; I work on a whole roll, rolling each section out to work on and arrange so there’s minimal sticking and contamination. I cover both sides of the paper, so I have to leave each side to dry before I construct the pieces.
Paper sculptures: disrupted conversations
These pieces investigate the ideas of truth and memory and how they can be distorted, changed and reshaped. The pieces also consider the cyclical nature of stories and history.
The narrative is interrupted with the twists and folds of the paper around the circle.
These interruptions, repetitions and overlapping created by the process create some really interesting shapes and marks. There is a deliberate deviation from the original intention of these marks. I want to create a feeling of never quite knowing where one mark ends or another begins and reframing the original ‘image’.
Colour is also integral to the pieces. Again, it’s about what we interpret from certain colours. I feel the black and white compositions are very different from the earth tones, and the blue tones vary in mood.
Paper sculptures: vulnerable parcels
My intention for these structures is to create something very fragile and frail that is ambiguous in form and evokes a sense of the uncanny.
These parcels can be cradled in your arms, can be displayed vertically, or piled up. I needed them to appear exposed and tactile and illicit some complex feelings.
Again, the crumpling, wrapping and folding of the paper distorts and interruptions the original flow of the paper painting. But the way these forms have been assembled creates a different narrative and mood.
Constructed resilience
I read recently that many dwellings in Basra, Gaza and Syria are now held together by corrugated iron and chicken wire.
I wanted to make work that reflected precariousness of life and the resilience of people in the most terrible of circumstances. I constructed some organically shaped forms from chicken wire and weaved silk through those forms. I hand-painted the silk with ink that seeped into the material and became part of the fabric.
The work isn’t specifically about war-torn areas, rather the pieces examine the fragility of life and how we get through it. The contrast between the soft, yielding fabric and the hard rigid wire seek to reflect our human vulnerability, beauty and strength.
