New Projects
Photo: Steve Russell Studios
"If you feel safe in the area you're working in, you're not in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel capable of being in. Go a bit out of your depth and when you don't feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you're just about in the right place to do something exciting.
David Bowie
Outdoor Sculpture Project
'Bubbling Away'
I was incredibly lucky to be given a bursary by Fresh Air to explore making a larger scale, garden/outdoor sculpture the 2024 Fresh Air Sculpture exhibition. This provided a wonderful opportunity to take working with recycled and repurposed material to a new scale and level.
My proposal involved creation of a sculpture based on bubble coral using re-melted waste glass, repurposed mirrored glass bubbles and scrap copper and steel. It needed to be large enough for people to engage with and see their reflections in the mirrors. Most of the mirrored bubbles are degraded which reflects our/human impact on the marine ecosystems.
I wanted the sculpture to be fun for both children and adults but with an underlying message should people choose to see it. Engaging people in conversations about climate change and
conservation through art is very important to me. It provides an opportunity for dialogue between people and can fire a child’s imagination.
Here is a short reel of the process and outcome. Images are from Fresh Air Sculpture and Sculpture at Doddington. Enjoy!
Special Project - Upton Castle
Coeden: Amidst the trees
The oceans are not my only love. I have loved trees all my life and like so many others, I have become fascinated by the world of fungi so eloquently explored and described in 'Entangled Life' by Merlin Sheldrake.
A big part of our sustainability work is around improving the biodiversity on our smallholding by planting trees and re-establishing hedgerows, so I was thrilled to be asked to create some special work for the summer exhibition at Upton Castle Gardens in Pembrokeshire.
The exhibition, titled Coeden: Amidst the trees, explored the relationship between trees, forests and their role in human lives and imaginations past and present.
I made both indoor (Not a Plant) and outdoor sculptures (Interdimensional Fruiting Bodies) for this based on repurposed and or re-melted waste glass, and repurposed stone and metal. All inspired by our connected lives.
Not a Plant
I'm very interested in the unseen/rarely seen parts of ecosystems and the team at Upton Castle provided the opportunity to explore this. 'Not a Plant' is a sculpture inspired by the strange, beauty of fungi made using repurposed and remelted waste glass and hand carved, Bath stone (quarry waste).
Interdimensional Fruiting Bodies
These garden sculptures are inspired by the intriguing, alien forms of Slime Moulds (Myxomycetes) as documented by the remarkable images by Barry Webb. These tiny creatures (1-4 mm) are neither fungi nor plant and go through many different stages in their lives (much like us 🤣) from single cell amoebae to the fruiting bodies/spore bearing stage. As the exhibition theme was inspired by the outstanding forest at Upton with it's champion trees, I wanted to make supersized versions of some of the forests smallest residents.
I have used what I learned in making the Bubbling Away sculpture to further develop my skills and visual language while repurposing waste glass and metal materials.
Sculptures at Upton Castle
design development sketches
Sculptures at WIP
Sculptures at Upton Castle
Special Commission
Ceremonial Water Vessels
The year started in a really interesting and meaningful way when I was asked to design and make a large, ceremonial vessel for the river Wye. It was great being able to work collaboratively and intuitively with Kim Kaos (@arts_activist_uk) on the design and with Neil Wilkin (@neilwilkinglass) on the making of the pieces. In Wild Spirits: The Ancient River Goddesses, Jonathan Weekes (@spiritualrewilding) articulates beautifully the reconnection taking place between people and the sacred place within our cultures that rivers used to hold. He states,
"a cycle of ceremony at Herefordshire council has captured the public's imagination, as waters from the River Wye were welcomed with poetry, song, and reverence. Led by campaigners from Save the Wye, including Kim Kaos's striking 3m puppet embodying the River Goddess, this event symbolises a profound shift in perception, recognising rivers as more than mere bodies of water but as sacred beings deserving of our reverence and protection.
The ceremonial action, characterized by a procession, inspiring speeches, and songs, culminated in a deeply symbolic gesture—the ceremonial introduction of the waters of the Wye into the council chambers, carried in a vessel specially crafted for the occasion. This act, accompanied by the presence of the River Goddess, served as a powerful reminder of the sacredness of our waterways and the intrinsic connection between humanity and the natural world."
We have subsequently made smaller, hand held vessels for the Wye, the Bristol Avon - 'Rave on for the Avon' and the Stour in Kent. This short video for #worldriversday sums it all up nicely.