My practice is rooted in urban landscape and its metaphorical meanings. Urban (as opposed to rural) landscape always speaks of the presence of people and the story of their being in particular places. My art revolves around location and time. I am interested in how knowledge of the past influences narratives in the present. Increasingly I use digital and archival research to unearth hidden connections between ‘now’ and ‘then’. These connections point to what is lost, and at the same time give it new life.

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The camera’s lens is central to my process, whether it is moving image, or paintings based on photographs and film stills. In films I bring past and present together, adding layers of meaning through spoken word and music – writing is another strand to my creative practice, and I have collaborated with composers on soundtracks. In paintings, I focus on the emotional charge – Barthes’ ‘punctum’ – that a particular detail embodies. 

 

The Royal Iris project focuses on a decaying boat berthed on a mud bank in Woolwich, a former Mersey ferry that hosted the Beatles and the Queen, in her glory days in Liverpool. The pathos of her windows, modified and damaged over time, the rusting hull and frayed and faded mooring ropes tugged at my heart.