Empty Shop Exhibition - The Scaled House

Fragmented into pieces, shrunk and enlarged, made almost weightless and then ascended through via the Stairwell Gallery. My intricate photographic sculptures have been expanded into a large site specific installation in the Stairwell Gallery at Empty Shop HQ, Durham.

The viewer is invited to explore the fragments of a Hebridian house which, in a time of uncertainty, questions what can be found to be secure, unwavering and enduring.


Preview: Friday 20th January from 6pm

The address of Empty Shop is 35c Framwellgate Bridge, Durham City, DH1 4SJ - Just on the edge of the bridge there is an entrance to the shopping centre on the left.  Just as you turn left into it, there is a doorway to the Empty Shop.  There is a map on their website (see below).

As the building is not always open to the public, the preview is the best time to view the work so it would be great to see as many people along as possible.
(It will be on view during other Empty Shop events for the following few months.)

Thanks :)

http://emptyshop.org/news/stairwell-gallery-upcoming-exhibition/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EmptyShop+%28Empty+Shop%29

Advent and Imaginaries of a Mysterious World

I am showing two pieces at the Advent Exhibition at the Holy Biscuit, Newcastle.  The exhibition runs from 1st December 6:30pm to 14th December 4:30pm.

See below link for more info.

http://www.theholybiscuit.org/whats-on/

I am currently showing a piece in the Imaginaries of a Mysterious World Exhibition in the Factory Kitchen at The Biscuit Factory. 

See below link:

http://www.thebiscuitfactory.com/the-factory-kitchen-presents/

Open Studios

I am taking part in the Ouseburn Open Studios.  26th/27th November 10am - 5pm

I am based in the Biscuit Tin studios on Warwick Street.

See below link for map and more details.

http://www.ouseburnopenstudios.org/

Artist Statement

My work explores the feelings evoked by architectural spaces; depicting figures in fantastical settings with atmospheric light and colour.  The process of making my work involves sculpture, photography and painting, reflecting my interest in transformations between two and three dimensions. 

I start by creating a distorted architectural model with painted detail, and then I photograph it.  In the image it is ambiguous what is real and it suggests different worlds or levels of reality.  I sometimes take this a step further by cutting up the prints and sticking them together to create new three-dimensional forms and spaces.  Other times I make the ink run in digital prints to blend photography and painting.  The pieces are often very small to evoke preciousness and curiosity.

I aim to bring out a spiritual and life changing significance in scenes that start off quite ordinary.  These scenes can be disorientating or claustrophobic, but there is always a sense of hope.  Staircases often feature in my work as they are beautiful shapes that convey movement and travel.  I am interested in the significance of the viewpoint and I use exaggerated perspective to create distortion and dramatic shifts in scale.   

I am influenced by studying the use of architecture by late 20^th century artists as well as by the Bible, Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space, Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth and Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr Caligari.  My aim is that the traditional language of perspective, representation and atmosphere will be understood by many, yet be stretched and pushed enough to result in exciting new art that can convey concepts in original ways.

He Is Near (Photograph)

Freedom (Photograph)

Freedom - 'Under Whose Wings' (Sculpture made out of digital prints)

New piece - Descent to Earth