installation.
title. MAiSIE
date. 2021
description. MAiSIE takes its name from Multi-sensor, Airborne Sea Ice Explorer, an electromagnetic sea ice mapping technology that is ever more necessary as scientists try to record polar ice’s elimination. This reduced, isolated mock-berg was presented as part of [T]error on Tour 2021 and live-streamed on Twitch. It encouraged viewers to contemplate the continuous cyclical brutality of the Anthropocene, alongside nature’s persistent fight back. The ice is far from silent; captured by hydrophone microphones, its creaks, cracks and squeals become the metaphorical tick of a countdown timer we have set racing toward our own destruction. The sounds demonstrate the myth in any ideas of the stoic, detached or passive ice shelf slowly bidding adieu. The ice actively communicates, asking for empathy, shouting and banging before it becomes part of the rising oceans.
title. the world's smallest ZAD (Zone à Défendre)
date. 2021
description. The World’s Smallest ZAD (Zone à Défendre) symbolically recreates the struggles of those fighting for better futures. Miniature near-utopias may be possible if they are shielded from the rest of the world. They are unsustainable because they are inherently porous; the world pushes in on them and they cannot help but look beyond their confines. We must still defend these zones, for our sanity and out of (perhaps foolish) hope. ZADs are not solely physical but exist within us and are strengthened every time we communicate and collaborate, every time we stand up and take action. Sowing seeds, waiting for spring, hoping for sun. Drawing on traditions of imbuing plants with meaning, The World’s Smallest ZAD becomes a living prayer. It is living, joyful and defiant, until the end. It formed part of Climate Action and Visual Culture: exhibition catalogue here, and statement here.
title. violent echoes
date. 2019
description. At times, spaces for nature become sites of destruction and protection. Attempts to convey these temporary battlegrounds often favour the visual. The regularity that such imagery is circulated can numb viewers to its significance. These spaces are inhabited by other sensory information. Sound permeates these spaces, at times ambient and at others fraught, its quality affected by the space’s materiality and the unfolding drama. This blends with other senses to generate embodied experiences of sites of violence and resistance. These sensory cues can remain affecting even when the visual loses its power, and represent other modes of knowing and understanding the world. The importance of this increases as climate change accelerates the loss of natural spaces.
Folkestone Gardens, Lewisham (04:37).
A small pocket of land, which includes a pond that is vital for many bird species. With a train line either side, a busy road nearby, and a flight path overhead, this oasis is being squeezed from every direction. A local community group recently secured funding to develop the pond, but a development proposal for a 16 storey building threatens to block sunlight from the pond, and most of the park.
title. the wild ascending
date. 2019
description. Increasingly, sounds of nature fight bravely against the built environment, which closes in and squeezes the birdsong out, along with the rustling of leaves, the buzzing of bees. But nature will not give up so easily. It reclaims its stolen lands, if you listen closely. For Deptford X, sounds were collected from around Deptford, and then captured as QR Code stickers. Eagle-eyed visitors could scan the stickers (positioned at participating Deptford X venues) to release these sounds of nature, and help them reclaim their space in London's streets.
title. full moon garden
date. 2019 (ongoing)
description. Full Moon Garden draws on traditions of moon gardening and imbuing plants with meaning. It celebrates the lunar calendar, which provides another way of understanding the passage of time, emphasising its more cyclical and regenerative qualities. Every full moon, plants are added to the Full Moon Garden, each with significance. Full moons are given titles - wolf, snow, harvest, hunter - expressing certain realities and stimulating reflections. A letter, written to the moon each month, uses the moon's qualities and the plant's meanings as a start point for inward contemplation. It becomes a journal, a time for personal growth just as the garden borne of this process grows and deepens in meaning with each plant added. Images have been selected as competition finalists by London National Park City (2019) and Grey Cube Gallery (2020).
title. sonic warfare/collateral damage
date. 2018
description. Navy activity is known to cause cetacean species to strand en masse, and yet these harmful military practices continue without widespread knowledge. Sonic Warfare/Collateral Damage plunges audiences into the cetaceans' world and positions them between routine military training exercises and their real-life effects. The disorienting and often uncomfortable installation is designed to stimulate affective responses in audiences as a way of connecting to the realities of these practices. Sonic warfare / collateral damage was originally presented in Geneva as part of Terror on Tour (2018). Sound-only versions have since been presented at Art the Arms Fair (2019), Depictions of Living (2020), and Ocean Archive (2020).
title. the darkness of light (outré collaboration)
date. 2016
description. outré was invited to participate in an outdoor exhibition at Milton's cottage. The conflict between light and darkness in Paradise Lost was represented by ‘tainted’ bulbs. Fragrant herbs and flowers replaced light filaments, as a nod to the cottage's wonderful gardens and frequent reference to flora in Milton's work. Each bulb was inscribed with relevant snippets of Milton’s poetry and prose.
title. camberwell arts festival (outré collaboration)
date. 2016
description. outré was invited to participate in the Camberwell Arts Festival by creating two window commissions for local businesses to draw attention and interest from passers-by.
title. little bittern (outré collaboration)
date. 2015 + 2016
description. As the 'migration crisis' reached horrifying levels, outré travelled to Calais to spend time with people stuck in the 'Jungle'. Determined to convey their stories to UK audiences, outré was invited to present an interactive signpost sculpture at BoomTown and Shambala Festivals in 2015 + 2016. The signpost emits snippets from interviews conducted in Calais, as it demonstrates the distances and directions to cities where many refugees originate from. The birds are those which migrate between the UK and these countries, unimpeded by border controls. Audiences were invited to stamp their solidarity with refugees.
title. firefly tales (outré collaboration)
date. 2015
description. outré was invited to participate in Deptford X, which took as its theme 'Deptford Stories'. Firefly Tales brought together contemporary reflections on Deptford with those from its grand naval past.
