I am concerned with issues of preservation and archiving, using traditional methods of preservation in unconventional ways such as shirts ‘preserved’ in salt and photographs ‘preserved’ in wax. The original objects are ultimately altered/defaced but become precious again in their own right, metamorphosing into something new.

I am interested in how we store these object within our homes – in shoe boxes, cupboards, drawers and tins. How long do we keep these things, and for whom? How precious are they? What should we keep? Do we know they are there still or have the slipped down the side out of sight and out of mind? I use found photographs that were once important enough to keep for many years, yet are now unimportant enough to keep but still too valuable to destroy.

The photographs I use are images that would have existed as part of someone’s personal collection and the furniture I use is also domestic furniture from a specific era. The furniture is wood and comes from the 60’s and 70’s giving it time to gather its own patina of memory. Nostalgia, memoriam, a time or moment that has passed all play parts in my work. Drawers hold and protect their contents and by way of shape also frames the object in much the same way as a frame protects and shows off its contents.

Since losing a substantial amount of my work in a fire these questions what, why and how we keep have again become relevant to me. How important is it that we keep things? When these objects are finally lost, forgotten about or destroyed does it matter? Who would it matter to?

Born in Cornwall in 1982 I studied Fine Art Textiles at Cornwall College before moving to London to study Fine Art at the University of Westminster. I continue to live and work in London.