Art Projects
A selection of art projects created over the last 30 years produced as part of artist residencies and commissions. Many of these art projects involve working with different communities and often explore to themes of belonging, meaning and identity.
The Salt Passages
Produced as part of a nine-month residency at the VR and Innovation Centre at Teesside University and Cleveland Arts in 1998. The project invited participants to talk about their connection to the rapidly changing social and industrial landscape of Teesside. The outcome of the project was an interactive installation and CD-ROM divided into 3 distinct chapters of audio and video elements. The Salt Passages was presented at: FUTURSONIC, Manchester, England, July 2000; V I P E R 20. International Festival of Film, Video and New Media; Basel, Switzerland, October 2000; Media Arts Festival, Frieslan, The Netherlands, September 2001.
Where do I go from here?
An installation produced while artist-in-residence at Durham Cathedral 2000-2001.
The installation comprises 60 suspended speakers, each with a blue light attached, that surround three pools of water ringed with broken slate. In the pools, a video of elements of northeast England's social and urban landscape is projected, while the space itself fluctuates with the murmur of voices and sparse abstract sounds. The participants are refugees and asylum seekers, currently living in the UK, who share their thoughts and experiences, and try to make sense of their life.
Installed at: University of Sunderland Gallery 2001; Durham Art Gallery, Durham 2001, The Public, West Bromwich 2004.
Elders
A light and sound installation exploring wisdom through the thoughts, ideas and experiences of 18 elderly residents from the Black Country in the West Midlands. Produced while artist-in-residence at Jubilee Arts, West Bromwich, England in 2002-03. It was supported by artists Bobby Bird and Catherine Tarbuck.
18 speakers that stand in a semi-circle. Attached to the rear of each speaker is blue halogen light that directly responds to the sounds that pass through that particular speaker by means of a sound-to-light unit. The audio element of the installation is an 18-channel system.
The participants share their personal perspectives on life and what they had learned. The participants also collaborated in making a series of portraits.
Small wonder
This audio-visual installation is based on the reflections of 12 participants who discuss the place of spirituality in their lives. Nine resin-glass screens are suspended as a grid onto which moving images are projected. Nine speakers with a red light attached are suspended around the space while four larger speakers are located in each corner. The double-sided screens invite the audience to move around the installation and explore it from different perspectives. The 12 participants from around the Highlands who were influenced by faiths and traditions, including Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, Atheism, and Bahai, shared their beliefs and ideas about spirituality.
Produced in Inverness, Scotland in 2007 as part of a 3-month residency with The Other Side of AIR.
It's like love is
An interactive sound and light installation produced in 2006 that explores the notion of love through the words of seven participants. Seven suspended orbs house a speaker, a blue light source and a proximity sensor. The orbs are made from clear resin produced using a unique method developed as part of this project.
As the audience moves through the installation the proximity sensors affect the brightness and volume of each orb. The seven orbs are linked together through a series of audio soundscapes that dynamically move across the space. As these sounds shift around the space they are subtly echoed by each of the orb's blue lights.
Produced with funding from Arts Council England and developed in collaboration with Bobby Bird.
in the marvellous moment
A large-scale projection piece commissioned by Birmingham Cathedral in 2013 through funding from Arts Council England and the Jerusalem Trust. The piece consists of the words and moving portraits of over 100 people who reflect the significance of Christmas and midwinter. The work was projected onto the sides of Birmingham Cathedral for 14 nights in December 2013.
The work was realised with the support of artist Andy McKeown and project manager Sadie Newman.
lifecycle
A multi-projection audio-visual installation based upon the experiences, perspectives and aspirations of 30 people who live and work in the former coal mining town of Coalville, Leicestershire. A sequence of moving imagery of the town is combined with a surround-sound audio track. The work is projected onto seven screens that alternate between individual images and a unified whole.
LifeCycle was commissioned as part of the Transform Project arts program at Snibston Discovery Museum and launched at the Century Theatre, Snibston in May 2011. It was subsequently shown in Coalville Centre and then at the DMU Cube Gallery, Phoenix Square, Leicester in September 2011.
the glass
This series of montage images was produced as part of an MPhil research degree programme between 1996 -1999 at the University of Derby. The project used emerging photo-imaging technologies to create a series of montage images exploring the power relationship of the West to the so-called third world. This series was produced as part of a more comprehensive investigation into the philosophical category of realism and formed part of the paper ‘Digital Realist Montage.
The work was exhibited in Washington, USA, Taipei, Taiwan and Rotterdam in the Netherlands. In the UK it was exhibited at The Castle in Nottingham and the Montage Gallery in Derby.
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