Over the years I have developed a focus on the material evidence of the interaction between city dwellers and their built environment.
By combining fine art and DIY processes which frequently has me re-enacting the events (fire, weather, vandalism or ageing) that may have caused a particular mark or shape in or on a building, I create objects which combine and summarise the experience of people and buildings.
What others have said of my work has been informative and has helped me refine my practice. One critic, writing in the architectural press, once called me a sort of archaeologist of the recent past while another, punning on the words, of a once popular song to make a gentle joke at my expense called me ‘a cock-eyed alchemist. Both appellations seem wholly appropriate since when I succeed I know I have made a valuable object (pure gold) out of the base materials, which others would have consigned to one of London’s many receptacles for non-toxic waste, the skip.
The skip, my source of materials, seems an appropriate symbol of London’s capacity to renew itself and my desire to reconstitute detritus into significant cultural artefacts for the inhabitants of a multi-cultural capital city and for all those who love the world’s cities.
