Powerhouse
2017. Video, colour and sound. 4 min, 20sec
Since 2017, my own identity has become a catalyst in relation to my practice, altering how I see myself in the world. Powerhouse acts as a pertinent example of this. In this work the rooms of a doll's house are used to act out desire, as my hands and lips caress and tantalise the carpets and windows. Voyeuristic and discomforting, it encapsulates my own preoccupation with the often diametrically opposed states of sexuality and domesticity, challenging the viewer to absorb the visual ambush of a tongue sensuously circulating in discord with the background hum of a vacuum cleaner. Creating Powerhouse was a turning point for me as an artist as it was the first time I felt liberated to freely express myself in my work. By rejecting the expectations of making a ‘serious’ or ‘meaningful’ art, I was free to act upon my natural impulses. This shift drew me to experiment with video and through this medium I started to interrogate what it meant to be a female artist in a climate where the body politic is more prevalent than ever. Working from such a domestic space, Powerhouse became inherently collaborative, with flatmates and friends dropping in, the doll’s house became a backdrop for conversation and shared experiences over dinner or cups of tea. Using my bedroom as my studio, this new exposed landscape encouraged me to deconstruct my own identity and locate the real me.
Carlisle In Pictures
2021. Video, colour and sound.
In 2021, while waiting to catch my flight to Sydney, I stayed with my mum in Carlisle during the lockdown. Spending more time in her home because of the restrictions, I began to pay closer attention to the pictures on her living room walls.
My mum was born in Carlisle but has lived in various places across the UK and abroad throughout her life. After spending 12 years in Goa, she returned to her roots in Carlisle. This felt like a pivotal moment in her life—reconnecting with parts of herself, finding comfort and reassurance in the memories of her past and childhood.
As I reflected on this, the paintings of Carlisle scenes, which had become so familiar I had come to ignore or glance at casually, started to take on a deeper symbolism. Thinking about art, representation, time, and memory, I wanted to explore my own perspective on a city so deeply intertwined with my mum’s personal history.
Walking through Carlisle’s city center, I sought out the real-life scenes depicted in the paintings. My goal was to juxtapose the imagined with the real, blending past and present. I wanted to consider my mum’s perspective as she views these paintings, the artist’s vision in creating them, and my own physical presence in the spaces they depict. By slicing together the paintings with video footage of the world around me, I aimed to create a dialogue between memory, art, and the lived experience of a place.
Bus Stop Disco
2017. London. Video, colour and sound. 15sec
Motorway lights
2019. Video and colour. No sound. 3 minute
I made a film on my iPhone while traveling south to London on a coach. Filming the lights of cars on the motorway, I was reminded of Walter Ruttmann’s *Lichtspiel Opus I* (1921), one of the earliest abstract films. It was late, and in a near-dream state, I began to see the car lights as an animation—detached from the mundane reality of the road trip.
Focusing solely on their color and movement, I turned the screen, allowing the lights to dance horizontally. This shift in perspective transformed them; the lights were no longer just car headlights but had freed themselves from their original context. They became like orbs or spirits, abstract entities with a life of their own. The video captured this transformation, imbuing the car lights with a new meaning and poetic significance.