10 Questions

1)You mention that you exhibited in Prague soon after the Velvet Revolution. Can you talk more about that exhibition? Is Prague a city that entered your life at that time, or had you had friends or colleagues in Prague before then?

The Prague exhibition began as an initiative between artists. The then Chair of Prague’s Association of Fine Artists, Igor Korpaczewski, wrote to the equivalent Chair of Birmingham Art Trust, Pam Skelton, to suggest an exchange, saying that his British contacts had told him that Birmingham was becoming “the most interesting Art Spot in the country”. Each chair subsequently selected six artists from their respective cities.

Igor was keen to have two UK artists staying in Prague for the duration of the exhibition, so myself and another artist lived there for one month. Igor was also our guide to the artist community across the city, allowing us to meet many fellow artists, attend daily studio and gallery visits as well as guest on local radio. It was a wonderful time to visit Prague as the years of communist control had only recently fallen away revealing a city of renewal, excitement and new-found creativity. It seemed almost daily that we saw films being shot against the fairy-tale background of the city’s famous architecture.

2) Can you talk more about your experience creating work for the Brierly Hill Art Trail?

The Brierley Hill Art Trail was a similar event to the famous Cow Parade, held in New York City 2000. Instead of cows, the animal chosen was in the form of a pit pony, to recognise their importance in the industrial heritage of Brierly Hill.

I was selected to be the artist that designed the original model of the pony. Thirty casts were reproduced from the original mould which were then distributed to, and decorated by, other artists, schools and local societies. I developed a good relationship with the manufacturer who reproduced my model and particularly enjoyed being shown around the factory, especially the processes involved in the manufacture.

The launch took place at the Dudley Performing Arts summer festival in July 2010, at Himley Hall and Park. Each pony was placed at a different location along a trail throughout the region for the public to follow.

After the trail event, the ponies were auctioned off by Stourbridge auctioneer Will Farmer from the Antiques Roadshow and the funds raised went to arts regeneration events in the borough

3) You discuss up-cycled as a central tenet of your art practice. How did this enter your practice and what have you discovered by using up-cycled materials?

I would say that I practice recycling rather than upcycling and try to find a use for as much single-use plastic as possible. This started over 15 years ago when I first began making figures from shells. My shell animals are all hollow, but when I started to make figures I needed to construct them around an armature. Recycling was not organised at this time – most plastic went in the bin – so I used and trapped it inside my figures. As I have experimented more, much of my sculpture is made completely from recycled plastic. A recent series is a collection of seabirds and fish, underlining the problem of large amounts of plastic in the oceans.

4) Can you discuss the role of humour in your work? Are there artists or role models whose approach to humour in practice influenced you?

I wanted to add an element of humour into my face covering for the Babel Mask Exhibition. I had decided on the totem animal theme early in the making. I tried at first with naturalistic looking animals, but it did not strike the right note. Using easily identifiable characters such as the Wombles and Eeyore felt right; friendly yet somewhat gruesome when you realise I have used their paws as decoration down the nose..  Since making the mask I have been looking at the work of Korean artist Hyungkoo Lee. ‘Animatus’ is a series of cast resin sculptures that depict the skeletons of well known cartoon characters. Bugs Bunny as ‘Lepus Animatus’ and ‘Anas Animatus’ is clearly Donald Duck. I like the fact that he describes his work as largely autobiographical, inspired by his experiences and a way of understanding his environment.

5) While the sculptural subject could be anything, you quite often focus on natural subjects - baboons, insects - using man-made materials. What impressions or connections do you want the observer to form when looking at, for example, insects (some of our most ancient species) created from our most recent technology?

My sculptures are nearly always exclusively representations of creatures or people. The type of animal I choose is motivated by the shared affinity I perceive myself and others have with them. For example, in the case of baboons, they are so closely related to us we can readily recognise and understand the relationships and interactions between them and their family members with those of our own.

My choice of insects is because of the awareness that our survival - and that of all life - is dependent on them, as they are the Earth’s pollinators. By revealing the variety and beauty of insects I aim to engage people and encourage them to become more interested in such wonderful creatures.

The choice to use modern discarded, man-made materials in their construction is deliberate. Each piece becomes a physical embodiment of the materials with which we are assaulting their environments. It is precisely by turning these materials into something engaging to the observer that I hope to raise awareness of the effect we and our waste products are having on the natural world.

6) You mention that you did a residency in Lahti, Finland. Had you been there before? How did your time in Lahti affect your practice? What discoveries did you V make?

It is very hard to define exactly how my practice has been affected by a residency. I thrive on change, so being in a new place, with new people is always a great stimulus. Also being away from home allows me to concentrate completely on my art when all the usual concerns of everyday life are removed.

The Finish residency came about through an exhibition at The Lahti City Museum, which was curated by Birmingham artist, Peter Grego. What was unusual about the exhibition was that every piece was created by a pair of artists. I was a painter at this time so came up with the idea of working on four canvases: each artist would work on two at a time and then exchange their pair at the end of the month, with a final week at the end when we worked together.

For the residency I was given a space in a group studio. What was amazing was that one of the other artists in the group was working on very similar ideas, although in a very different style

I was invited back the following year for Lahti’s city-wide exhibition in which I painted a 50-foot canvas that was hung from a multi-storey car park in the city centre. Of all the countries I have visited, I think I developed the closest affinity with the Finnish people I met – their humour, social interaction and relationships to the natural world felt in tune with my own.

7) Do you find that colleagues and friends who know about your practice of using discarded and found material tend to send or bring you materials that you could use? What are some of the more interesting items you have found?

Yes, I have lots of people collecting for me. At the moment I am using Tetra Paks, as the are not recyclable in most of the UK. I find people are delighted to be able to give them to me so they do not end up in landfill.

I am often given shell collections from strangers that have been to one of my exhibitions, and friends will keep shells for me if they eat seafood. Birmingham Fish Market let me collect shells from them for months when I was making 3 life size horses for the Henley festival.

Recently I was given a beautiful collection of old plumbing parts from a Victorian house that some friends are renovating. I have sculpted using a variety of materials from TV aerials, old wetsuits, gardening gloves, discarded shop display shelving, plastic tubing, sofa springs and raffia blinds to name a few.

8) Do you find that the gallery or alternative or outside spaces give more power to your work?

Making work for a particular space is very inspiring for me and is becoming a much larger part of my practice. I exhibit annually as part of the Rendezvous aux Jardin, which is a national open gardens event in France sponsored by the ministry of culture, with support from the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP).

While the event focuses mostly on plants, Cairnhill, near Bordeaux, also has an annual art exhibition. These events are very well attended by a great variety of visitors – 200 to 300 people - many of whom may not go to conventional art galleries. Last year I made and installed a series of large insect sculptures, created from donated junk that had been sourced locally.

I enjoy the challenge of letting the materials suggest the forms I will create and responding to the surrounding landscape, wildlife and vegetation.

9) What projects are coming up for you? How has the COVID pandemic affected the trajectory of your exhibition plans?

The pandemic has inspired a new project and method of working for me. All of my planned exhibitions for this year were cancelled, so I started to think how I could still work with other artists and exhibit my work. I have been involved with quite a few virtual exhibitions, but I also wanted to present physical work to an audience.

Although the pandemic presented a challenge in terms of travelling safely, I still wanted to exhibit with other people without the need for the artists or their work to move physically. There was, however, nothing to stop an exchange of information, so I settled upon the idea of having several artists share the instructions of how to make their work rather than transporting the work itself.

I have managed to secure funding from The Arts Council for the project, and have chosen three other artists to participate. At the moment we are in the process of making the instructions for each other which we will exchange before Christmas. Then early next year we will make our own work and each others. Exhibitions will be held in late spring/early summer in three locations in the UK and one in France all outside and compliant with the COVID restrictions at the time. Full documentation of all the exhibitions and the process, will be available on a dedicated YouTube channel.

I am hoping that I will be able to expand this practice to get more artists involved from Europe and other continents. I think the benefits of this way of working, go beyond the current crisis. This is the ultimate way of sharing skills and knowledge between artists while negating the need for costly (both ecological and monetary) travel of art pieces and people.

10) What do you believe will make a tipping point in the general attitude about the production and consumption of goods and the need to protect and conserve habitat and restore the environment? Do you see consumer attitudes changing already?

I am optimistic that we are becoming more aware that our extractive use of the planet's resources is ultimately unsustainable and is overwhelming the carrying capability of our shared ecosystems.

Fortunately, young people are fully aware of the seriousness of the situation – the rise of the School Strikes movement over the past few years I find very inspiring. I suspect that it will take a transition led by the next generation to bring about a shift to a sustainable circular economic system, one where raw materials are no longer extracted, replaced and discarded but instead are continually recycled and reused as a perpetual resource for everyone.

The great thing about natural feedback systems is that they are self-correcting and restorative as long as we haven't overwhelmed them. Where we have caused damage, we have all the tools at our disposal to give nature the help it needs. For example, we already know how degraded soils can be nursed back to health and the benefits that reforestation can bring.

I do see consumer attitudes changing, although not perhaps as fast as they should. The shift to plant-based diets, the consumption of dairy- and cruelty-free products is already commonplace among young people and the numbers are increasing across all age groups.

I see the potential to build a cleaner, greener future as an exciting and necessary project – one in which we can all participate.