Artist in Residence 2007, Sitka Center for Arts and Ecology
Statement
My experiences as a vet have influenced my work in many ways. Animal death, the moment of death, the loss of the soul, the mourning process, the physical shape of death, the approximation to sleep, the aestheticism and historical tradition of the depiction of death all have bearing on my recent work.
My images are empathetic in deliberate contrast to the contemporary trend for visceral violence and clinical dissection. I emphasise how sleep and death may be confused, how the shape of the body after death maybe twisted as if full of life.
In a similar way to the pieta, a work of art that is concerned with the display of death and exaggerated mourning, I make figures, some real, some ghosts, who play this role in mourning, and pay homage to lives which are gone. There are so many unclaimed individuals such as stray animals brought in for disposal or kittens aborted just before their time, who have nobody to remember them. In a way, these prints can be seen as a memorial to them.
Recent prints have been multi-plate etchings influenced by my education in the use of multiple blocks in Japanese style woodblock printmaking. Using transparent inks achieves an intensity of colour when two plates are printed on top of each other. The plates are roughly complementary rather than parts of a strict jigsaw puzzle, and incorporate a lot of experimental textures and effects.
Education
Monbusho Scholarship Woodblock printmaking student, 1998-2000, Japan
BA in History of Art (2:1), 1993-1994
Cambridge University
Veterinary Medicine, 1991-1998
Cambridge University
Exhibitions
2006
- Apis Books collaboration with Kay Sexton, Foyles, London
- Cascade Print Exchange
- Printzero Exchange Show
- The Year of the Dog, Vestry House Museum, Walthamstow, London
- Artefacts, Lot One Ten, Walthamstow, London
- Royal Academy of Arts Summer Show, London
- Lessedra World Art Print Annual
2004
- Originals 04, Mall Galleries, London
- Fighting Back, Motoazabu Gallery, Tokyo
2003
- You Caught My Eye In Heaven, Printspace, London
- Pub Prints, Shaws Booksellers, London
2002
- Still Life: Sleeping Beauty Printspace, London
- Shaws Summer Exhibition, Shaws Booksellers, London
2001
- Multiple Impressions, Printspace, London
- National Print Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
2000
- Juice, Gallery Space4U, Kyoto
- Peace in the New Millennium, Kokusaikaikan, Kyoto
- Norikae, Kokusaikaikan, Kyoto
- Tabi, Gallery Tears, Kyoto
- Kyoto Seika University Student Exhibition
1999
- Osaka Kyodai University Student Exhibition, 1999
Residencies
- Sitka Center for Arts and Ecology residency 2007
- Printspace gallery and studio resident, 2001-2003
