My current work involves a much slower and intimate process than the past few years of my practice. It is a studio based work, testing, giving space to, and developing ideas and work that has come out of the socially engaged projects that I have run. Themes I am currently exploring are:
- The impact socially engaged projects have on an artist, the ‘shape’ of an artist – body shapes, emotional impact, burnout.
- The similar bodily responses (shapes) between the emotional load of running projects and the emotional load felt as a parent.
- Slow and detailed processes and the space these give for reflection and healing.
I am a multi-disciplinary artist with almost 10 years experience running socially engaged art projects, in questioning whose voices are heard, and in the access and spaces that can challenge or facilitate this. I have been awarded six project grants from Arts Council England to run projects focused on making more voices visible in and around my local community as well as nationally.
The award nominated Woman Up! podcast that I produced with Amy Dignam is another example of this area in my work. The podcast has over 50 episodes raising the profile and experiences of women and non binary artists and campaigners as a long term archive which is free to access.
Many of my projects have considered access into the ‘artworld’ and into art practice, with a focus on class. What barriers are still in place? How do we challenge these? And how ultimately do we do things differently to restructure what is considered the art world and art practice?
Originally from a village near Hull in East Yorkshire I grew up in a small town by the sea to a stay at home older Dad and a full time working Mum (usually with at least two jobs!). Feminism was part of my upbringing even before I knew the word. As well as being a Northern feminist artist my background is in Sociology and British Sign Language (BSL). I studied both areas at the University of Durham where my dissertation considered ideas of language and labelling in the Deaf community.
I have Interpreted between BSL and English professionally for almost 20 years including several years of Performance Interpreting. The use of visual communication and language has featured in my art practice over the years, and the position of being ‘inbetween’ and the ‘translator of situations’, as well as being a queer woman from a working class background, has influenced my work greatly.
I have exhibited nationally and internationally, performed at Colchester Arts Centre, Toynbee Studios and Leydon Gallery and my residencies have included the National Archives, Platform 1 Gallery, Floating Island Gallery and Chapel Arts Studios. I have been awarded 6 project grants from Arts Council England since 2017. I am an associate Artist with Chapel Arts Studios in Andover and in 2019 began the Woman Up! podcast series with Amy Dignam and in association with the Women’s Art Library, Goldsmiths.