I am a visual artist living in a narrowboat on the frequently flooding Bristol Avon. My studio is at Spike Island, Bristol with my four-legged studio assistant Harry and where I am also a studio rep.
I am drawn to places and materials that are constantly changing, in which different forms of life, memories and histories often rub uncomfortably up against each other: along the margins of tidal mudflats, city harbour detritus, floating carcasses, rusty paint-pitted boats, housing precarity and dynamic frequently flood river. I work with a shifting mix of media including sculpture, living and found materials, and craft processes to choreograph a fleshy, layered, porous interaction between material process, space, objects and audience.
An installation of my work was included in the exhibition 'Found Cities, Lost Objects: Women in the City', curated by Lubaina Himid, Royal West of England Academy (2023). Other recent projects include work shown at Eastside projects, Birmingham (Members Show 2024); curating a group collaboration ECO|CON (2023); co-producing ‘Isn’t Bite Also Touch? an event on contagion and desire (with artist-writer Jack Young, Spike Island, 2022); and BRIZopoly, a large-scale site-specific installation for Centre of Gravity, Old Soap Factory (Bristol, 2020).
Support (2022/4) includes Arts Council DYCP, Spike Studios bursary, Ideas Exchange funding from The Brigstow Institute, University of Bristol and a West of England Visual Arts Alliance R&D bursary.
I was awarded an art-practice-based PhD in cultural geography from University of Exeter (funded by the AHRC, 2016) and an MA Fine Art (Falmouth 2010) for which I received the Sandra Blow Prize for Excellence. I have held lecturing positions at both universities (2011 - 17). I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Previously, I worked for many years in the third sector and later in community development as a project development officer for Penwith District Council, Cornwall. Highlights include setting up charities The Balsam Centre and The Growing Space in Wincanton, Somerset.
Photo credit Lisa Whiting