Statement

I wanted to be a taxidermist, instead I'm an artist.

My work explores relational subjectivity and self-awareness through the awareness of ‘the other’. With an inability to focus on the ever-shifting present, I believe we instead try to explore our identities in relation to (the distance of) others, in relation to a (performed) role and in relation to the (imagined) past.

As such, much of my work concerns the desire for immortality and acts of re-creation and preservation undertaken to stave off the passing of time. Some of these acts, which are born from a yearning for impossible records (of place, time and experience), display this confusion about identity and purpose.

Media

I use mainly photography, video and installation as media which offer the promise of 'freezing' and producing a safe version of the world (visually represented or re-created), where the viewer can test their relationships, reactions and self-awareness.

Creating and reflecting

My work is never a clean documentary as it balances orchestration and accident to allow a sense of the uncanny. A recurring theme is imitation or assimilation, as (attempted) acts of empathy, from the simplest gesture of returning a wave to the complex phenomena of battle re-enactment and museum display.

The face is central to this and recurs in my work, sometimes masked, distorted or strangely lit. Disrupting the ability to 'read' a face affects - and raises our awareness of – this as our most common and unconscious form of interaction and judgement-making.

My work questions whether 'performing' an identity or role can aid self-awareness or awareness of how others relate to you. I also explore false empathy and the appropriation of identity as a social or cultural symbol in some of my works.