ARTIST

ARTISTS  STATEMENT

My work explores queer identity and trauma in romantic relationships.

I draw from experiences in my own past romantic relationships to create audio based poems and installation drawings.

I am greatly inspired by artists who use ideas surrounding diaries and activism experiences in their work, specifically Artists such as Keith Haring, as I enjoy  the way in which his work plays with scale and how his mural based work envelops a space and makes the space look like it is alive. Also the way that his work documents queer culture in the USA during the time of the HIV and AIDS and the activism surrounding the crisis in the 1980s. Another artist who inspires my work is Tracey Emin, Specifically her 1998 installation piece “My Bed”. What inspires me about this piece is the way that it is preserved and presented, in that every time it is shown in a new gallery space it is displayed in exactly the same layout that it was created in 1998. This inspires me as I think that the work being presented in this way makes it function as a time capsule into the artists life to shed light on their own experiences this way of sharing experiences I something I try to emulate in my own practice.

Within my work I want to further explore ideas surrounding documenting traumatic experiences related to identity and how I can reframe them into work that allows viewers to understand queer identity and experiences from a more personal and emotional perspective. 

An additional aspect of my practice which I want to explore in more depth is diversity of material process and marrying together different mediums to create a layered viewer experience. Currently I work between audio poetry installation and drawing. I would like to add to this skill set and collaborate with others such that I can learn other material processes which I can apply to my current way of working. The layering of different mediums is important to me in my practice as with looking at the themes of identity and relationships I like exploring how intimate I can make my work come across to the viewership. A further aspect of my process which is significant to me is collaboration. Over the course of my education in the arts I have been open to collaborating as much as I can. I think that working with others towards a common creative goal is important as it allows you to learn new skills, and more specifically within my work has allowed me into perspectives into other peoples identities and lifestyles which I wouldn’t be as educated on if I hadn’t creatively collaborated with them. I also think that collaboration is important for networking opportunities and building long standing professional relationships

Lastly I think what drives my practice the most is a personal need to amplify queer experiences in late adolescence and adulthood to shine light on trauma that can and does happen in queer relationships and have more open discussions about diversity and identity in creative spaces.

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