Visual Artwork
The Body is an Archive
The Body is an Archive is part of an ongoing series of works that explores alternative archives. This collection of multimedia sculptures presents a new form of archiving history in terms of bodily memories. The idea of bodily memories are ones that were formed through body actions or interactions, and can’t always be directly translated, like most memories. Here the objects inside have been chosen as they stimulate a bodily memory, so to try and archive these moments I’ve encased them in jelly, which is meant to represent the body’s form.
This exhibition is a stage of research where the works are given over to the public in order to see how this archive exists outside of close preservation. The texture of the jelly is there to not only preserve but replicate the place where these facts or histories were originally stored. They are not designed to be comfortable. Sometimes the medium rejects the object, making us wonder if we can actually ever truly translate or preserve our histories. After working within a public archive and gallery space, and having worked for years in public facing roles, I have developed a keen interest in the power dynamics, ethics and reality of how we preserve objects and histories, and how the boundaries of stuffy traditional organisation methods can be tested. Not everything can be preserved to a specific system, so what happens when we start to turn the archive into a representation or mirroring of the things presented? How does this change what can be given over? How does this alter how we feel we are able to interact with the archived materials? In the case of the sculptures here, the work is also exploring the personal as valid fact, and how creating your own archive can be a holistic practice. Making the space fun and regaining power of the memories by controlling the objects that trigger them, are part of this.
Elspeth’s explorations from my writing practice often move into more visual art forms as she looks at how we can communicate, read and research. Often playing with sculptural installations or performance work, picking apart memory, and everyday symbols and how we interact with artwork are key themes. Looking at how the body, class, food and behaviour intersect. Some are cathartic, some are observational, and other’s are inviting you in to learn how your participation reflects back to you.
The Body is an Archive was exhibited as the second stage of research as an installation of the same name, at Liquid Gold Studios, London, 23rd -28th March 2023.
You Do So Much
You Do So Much, is a photographed performance in collaboration with Yasmeen Melius. The work explores a common phrase in my life of people saying ‘You do so much’ without knowing I have to. Intertwining with realities of being working class, and having to have multiple jobs alongside studying and volunteering to progress, this work examines the hustle culture, and constant - often ignorant - praise for being busy. Here the birthday cake, as I turned 25, begins to haunt and stalk me through my daily life, the phrase spelt out adding to the weight, before I reclaim the space by destroying the cake.
This photo-series was displayed as part of the Pure Class exhibition in Bethnal Green, with the RCAWCC, August, 2022.
Aphrodisiac Plates i & ii
These two plates, one featuring a lobster, the other an oyster, are accompanied by text that are a playful way of drawing attention to the class separation and ideas we have around sex. Putting aphrodisiacs inside narratives of everyday accessible romance, uses humour to call out consumer or mythological narratives that sustain a social hierarchy, even in the bedroom.
These two plates were displayed as part of the Pure Class exhibition in Bethnal Green, with the RCAWCC, August, 2022.
Large and small editions of these plates are available on request, please contact the artist.
I want to be a seahorse, I said.
This installation sculpture, combines objects, photography and text, in a response to misunderstandings at work about my PMDD chronic illness. Being part of a hormonal condition, it is often looked over or misunderstood as a female problem. The phrase: I want to be a seahorse, I said, refers to how as a child I wished to be a seahorse whenever I had bad period cramps. I repeat it again here as I try to translate my condition to another who has little interest in learning the realities.
I want to be a seahorse, I said, was exhibited as part of a collective show Custard Cowboy, London, March, 2022, and in Omitted References in East London, August, 2022.