Exhibitions
“What If…”, Group Exhibitions – Atrium Gallery, City Campus, Uni of Brighton, November 2024.
What if Exhibition… Atrium Gallery Grand Parade University of Brighton Art and Media November 2024
Untitled (Together in Electric Dreams). Plastic sandbag, acrylic paint and resin – 10cm x 10cm.
From the song Together in Electric Dreams by Giorgio Moroder and Philip Oakey.
“We’ll always be together
However far it seems
(Love never ends)
We’ll always be together
Together in electric dreams”
I allowed the material to dictate the form. The bag was split in two, so no matter if parted like the song they would always be together. The black line across both elements of the piece, draw the viewer’s eye to look closer and also so it looks like it flows.
Unfolding Practice, Edward Street, Uni of Brighton. March 2025.
The work explores the physical properties of materials, particularly plastics, and their transformation through processes like heating, layering, folding, and scrunching. And it investigates the interplay between synthetic and organic forms.
Work delves into themes of time, aging, and entropy, showcasing how materials evolve and decay over time. The organic elements such as bark and stone, aim to unite these contrasting forms. This is reflected in my fascination with partial destruction and the organic qualities of the finished pieces. I aim for the art to be aesthetically pleasing while carrying deeper environmental and philosophical messages.
MA Fine Art, Summer Show, City Campus, Uni of Brighton, June 2025
Everything in my pieces in the exhibition was repurposed.
The ceiling pieces were waste plastic mainly from the plastic wrap used for bananas when they are delivered into the supermarkets, with oil pastels and baby oil and hung with fishing wire and plastic pegs.
The floor piece is 250 x 150cms made up from 42 components, all made from soft plastics (food wrappers) with acrylic paint. These were arranged to mimic the chemical formula of LDPE 4 (Low-Density Polyethylene). LDPE4 is a flexible, durable, and lightweight thermoplastic commonly used for plastic bags, bubble wrap and food packaging.
The window piece which was packaging plastic with acrylic paint and sellotape.
I have come to a new understanding with plastic, it is truly a remarkable and yet highly problematic material. It is everywhere so it is easy to get hold of. It’s malleable and when heated you can mold it and it cools and becomes sculptural, catching the light and can be luminescent.
The problem is it just does not go away, it lives forever and we do not have the infrastructure to recycle what we already have on the planet. Until such a time when it’s no longer cheaper to produce raw plastics (when the oil runs out). Repurposing recycling and reusing of plastic will be only a small fraction of the story….
“What If…”, Group Exhibitions – Atrium Gallery, City Campus, Uni of Brighton, November 2025.
The regret of “After Party” Balloon Resin and Ribbon and weight 14 x 9 x10 cm.
The balloon has fallen and deflated and is no longer a symbol of fun and party – now it’s alone, shrunken and spent. The piece resembles the human condition.
The material is latex which is sustainable and comes from rubber trees but once it is coloured and manufactured into a balloon, it becomes toxic to the environment and wildlife and are among the top ten types of debris found in coastal cleanups. Balloons should no longer just be released as they float away, burst or get caught up in trees or waterways, the ribbons and ties can strangle birds or be eaten by other wildlife.
The Irony is the ‘After life’ of a balloon is no longer about fun and celebration but litter, breakdown, strangulation, starvation and environmental pollution.
“This Is Now" – Atrium Gallery, City Campus, Uni of Brighton, November 2025.
This exhibition was a work in progress, so I wanted to see how fellow students viewed the space. Merleau-Ponty argued back in 1966 that subject and object are intertwined, and perception requires the whole body, not just vision. But in 2025 when visually everything is in front of you, galleries usually hang works at 145cm height. I wanted to see if the viewer would look up, down and around or if we are too used to just looking straight ahead.
I had a looped digital film (28 mins in total) of a number of balloons being inflated until they exploded – some far more rapidly than others, the film was called “Its a Banger” but sadly this was wiped by the Uni. I wanted to observe if people would stay for the duration of a balloon being inflated until it exploded. I collected the detritus from the burst balloons and exhibited them with the soft balloon sculptures.
I placed these part balloons as if they had landed in places where work is not normally seen in the atrium space. I wondered if people would notice them as they passed by while on their way to get lunch or a coffee. And, if they did, how they would engage with the act of looking up.
My experiment was quite sad in a way. Mostly they did go unnoticed by the students; I had expected more of the creative art students to look around them. I think if they know that it is part of an artist’s practice then they will purposely look, but otherwise generally they don’t – I’m not sure if I would have either.
