The installation presented within the wetlands site 'Living Collections' features five small figures that are part human, part creature.
These figures are hybrid forms that have moved in and made the site their home, for now.
Our collective movements this past year have been severely restricted with the global pandemic and perhaps we are now more aware of our environments and how we live with the natural world. With this installation I wanted to consider our relationship to the environment and more specifically our wetlands. The London Wetlands is carefully managed to support new birds and species as they come and go but the site is also a microcosm of the wider world, reflecting often difficult migratory pathways and the ripple effect of climate change.
Within the conservation world there is a term ‘imprinting’ when a bird or creature utilises person-made materials and sites, and adapts to these environments in order to survive.
This installation turns this term around and considers, should we be more animal and work with the environment?
Birdlands, inspired by research into wetlands and the environment given imputes by recent experience of lockdowns and a yearning for the natural world.
The birds are popping up at the top of the painting, there is a Phoenix rebirth element to this painting but I wanted it to transport you to another world, where the birds are in charge.
120 cm x 150 xm acrylic on stretched canvas
All Seeing
120 cm x 150 cm oil on stretched canvas.
An uncanny and all seeing bird creature is depicted with multiple heads.
A Forest is a site-specific installation developed from research into the Ljusne-Woxne family business and former saw mill factory and the attendant relationship with the collections and the establishment of the Hallwyl Museum. The materials I have used link metaphorically and poetically to the collections at the museum and are designed to evoke themes of loss, disruption, migration of people and materials and the ecological management of resources.
The branches reference the wood from the forests in Ljusne, without which there wouldn’t have been the wealth to invest in the museum.
The work was created using small branches wrapped in velvet, which I used to represent the opulence and splendor of the house, its displays and the rich fabrics used within the museum, but also to give the branches the appearance of being charred and burnt. The idea of charring is a way of referring to the production of charcoal, which was a bi-product of the sawmills, and of course the loss and devastation caused by the business on the surrounding forests and the significant disruption to people once the business closed.
The idea of wealth and richness - opposed to hardship and the loss of the forest is something that interests me greatly. The process of wrapping and binding the branches speaks of both death (and to me is like the velvet lining of a casket) and also about a rebirth in the sense that that I am creating a new (albeit temporary) artwork from the branches.
In the context of the house and the collections within the museum, my process is both a form of preserving the branch and a means of protection. But I also felt there was a ritualistic element in the gathering, wrapping and preserving, which is something that has been used throughout history.
I’m also interested in the idea that a humble branch can be part of the collection; and for me it recalls the way Wilhelmina von Hallwyl documented and collected everyday items such as kitchen utensils, and wine bottles, as well as great works of art.
The final part of the installation was re-presented at Ljusne the former wood mill site.
On the Brink
120 x 150 cm, acrylic and oil on stretched canvas
This painting has been made in response to the uncertainty and change that so many of us have been experiencing but it also inspired by the forms and beautiful chaos of the natural world. .
150 cm x 120 cm, acrylic and oil on canvas
100 cm x 100 cm
Oil and oil stick on stretched canvas
240cm x 150 cm
Acrylic and oil on stretched canvas (across two canvases).
180 cm x 215 cm (unframed on canvas, not stretched)
Acrylic and oil paint and oil bars on canvas.
Frenzy was painted quite intensely; beginning by layering up with acrylic paint, then oils and then oil bars. I wanted the intensity of the lines and colour to reflect the difficult times of the pandemic, of systems changing, and everything we know and understand being upended.
180 cm x 220 cm
Acrylic, oil and oil stick on unstretched canvas.
180 cm x 220 cm
Acrylic and oil paint on un-stretched canvas
